Progress for Our Nation - Episode One

That day Dr Og go Geylang. Not the even number  Lorong ok, but the odd number one. Last time younger time, will go Geylang eat frog leg porridge, beef kway teow etc etc etc. Nowadays Geylang half is like Chinatown, half is kennah gentrified. Wah no longer got the same feel liao.

Anyway Dr Og along the way visit an old friend who is a GP. Last time, his business very good one. People who stay around the area liked to go see him. So in morning he busy give the ah girl and ah boy MCs. At night, he busy giving the call girls penicillin. 

Those were a long time ago. Over the years, his business seemed to have dwindled. Dr Og also never really ask him la. Sensitive mah. 

That day, there were no patients when I was at his clinic and he brought up the issue himself. 

“Og ar, I think I got to move to a new location.” He said. 

“Wah, you here very long liao leh. I thought you last time like it here coz lunch can go karaoke for some quick fun???! Too many hostesses ask you for free consult isit??” I teased him. 

(In case, his wife happens to be reading , this is of course entirely fictional. Lunch time he usually eating some nice hawker food around the area which explains his current size)

“No la, now people so lazy, no more open at noon la. Actually I called a few ex patients and you won’t believe why they don’t come back!”

“Why??!!” I was curious to know.

“They tell me that they can’t stand having to climb the stairs up to my clinic!” He lamented.

So it seems that in the past, people were quite used to and were happy to climb stairs. But after HDB upgraded and added lifts to every floor, Singaporean lost the will to climb! No one was willing to climb stairs these days and his clinic was in a walk up building on level three with no elevator...

Sighing away, he told me that ironically, a 80 old lady who had OA knees still visited him regularly. She herself stayed in a walk up apartment and despite the pain, she had to climb stairs to get home and did not mind doing so to see her GP. We both agreed that had she not been made to climb stairs, she may not even be walking anymore!

Dr Og don’t know how to console this old friend. Singapore has progress but in the process there can be some people who kennah some collateral damage. 

Just like him, I too miss the good old times. 

On the Other Side Part 1

John could feel his face tensing up and the creases between his eyebrows deepening.

The irritation was building up. 

Sure, he was late five minutes for his appointment but he had been waiting for an hour already. He wondered if the receptionist disliked him and pushed him to the back of the queue, but then again, the last patient (who went in 30 minutes ago) was still inside. Every time he approached the counter to ask how long more he had to wait, the receptionist gave him a dirty and judgemental look. That was if she even bothered, she was busy most of the time preparing medications and answering phone calls.

Finally his number was buzzed and he went into the consultation room. At least the doctor was apologetic. As John continued to complain about the long wait he noticed that the doctor had a look of resignation. Feeling bad, he stopped complaining and started telling the doctor about his discomfort.

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Every day is a rush.

Morning is a rush to bring the children to school. Screaming at the kids to hurry up. Negotiating the traffic. Dropping them off. 

David is never late for work. He would arrive at work early after dropping the children off  to avoid the morning jam. He also hated the judging eyes of the patients if he came into the clinic late. Today was the same. He arrived early, parked at his favorite spot and  went to the office to answer emails. 

5 minutes before the clinic started, he was already seated in the clinic room. As usual, the first patient did not turn up on time and came half an hour late. As usual, his clinic was double booked and unfortunately today, everyone seemed to be turning out. 

As he looked at his queue system on the computer, his anxiety was building up as there was now five people in the queue waiting. Also he had to pee... but he reckoned he would see the next patient before going to the loo. And then the next... and the next.

When he called John in, he knew all was not well. John looked angry and before he could even apologize, John started complaining on the long wait and how his time was wasted waiting so long. He went on and on about how David was a tardy doctor. 

In his mind, David was wondering if the PSA (Patient Service Associate) at the reception hated him. Or maybe the clinic manager was against him. Why is it that his clinic was not only full but always double booked???!!!!

David wanted to stop John from ranting on so that he could get back to the consultation. But he knew from experience that would just escalate things and he would probably just end up with a complaint to the hospital. He even swallowed his sigh. 

Thankfully, John stopped after a while and The rest of the consult was easy enough. 

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The PSA, Jane, took a peek at Dr David as he walked into the clinic room. She noticed that he was always suspiciously early. She wondered in her mind if this Dr  David took a liking to her. After all, given her beauty, who wouldn’t. It must be, since doctors are always late for clinics. 

As the session progressed, Jane noticed that the patient John kept looking her way. After a while, he came to the counter to ask her how long it would take. And the he came and ask again! 

“Aiyah! Why these guys cannot just ask me for my number instead of so much pattern??!!”

She thought...