Instant Noodle Medicine

Over at the MMR, Palmdoc brings up good points on how medicine is not about "instant care."

"I’d like to repeat once again the wise saying of Bushido@Dobbs (indeed I’ve incorporated this into one of the MMR Quotes which you see randomly displayed in the upper right hand corner of the page):

The practice of medicine is not like instant mee - it’s not how long you wait but what you get at the end which matters

Precisely, dear Health Minister. I think you should forget about waiting times. Concentrate on Quality. There are issues which are far more important to the doctors running the clinic which could improve efficiency. Lousy records management resulting in 404 situations (that’s Internet-speak for “file not found”). Missing or untraceable lab results. Computer system going down. Actual specialist not around - too busy attending some mesyuarat somewhere.

In any case, this pursuit of “shorter waiting time” is an exercise in futility. Why? That’s because many patients don’t keep their appointments anyway! They either don’t come on time or sometimes don’t show up at all. That’s the Malaysian style lah. You know, Malaysian time!

What I suggest is that the MOH (or any hospital for that matter) could put up a Doctor and Patients’ Charter which reads something like that:

We Guarantee Patients a Clinic Waiting Time of Not More Than 30 Minutes
** Terms and Conditions Apply

And in the small print, the T&C are:
1) If any patients don’t turn up on time or are late for their appointment, then the guarantee for the day does not apply as this messes up the appointment system.
2) Turning up earlier than scheduled does not necessarily mean you will be seen earlier, duh.
3) Turning up on the wrong day means we are likely to reschedule you to another day. There is no guarantee of being seen on a non-appointment day.
4) Don’t expect the specialists clinic to see you quickly just because you feel your problems are “urgent”. We have the ER for that.
5) Patients in the wards should be considerate enough not to suddenly become ill or arrest during clinic times as the doctors will have to leave or be late for the clinic to attend to them. If any of them do, then the clinic waiting time guarantee will not apply."