This country may be advanced in a lot of things but when it comes to customer support, medical help and genuine care for people, it is primitive and as fake as the sand that cover its beaches.

My husband has very high tolerance for pain. He seldom gets sick and, according to him, hasn’t visited the doctor for a check-up or confined in a hospital since his birth. So yesterday when he said he needed to see the doctor for his aching wrist, which bothered him for almost 3 weeks, I knew the pain was intense this time. I went with him seeking for hospitals that would admit walk-ins.

Medical clinics were turning us down saying he needed an appointment. My husband said he couldn’t sleep one more night with that kind of pain so we tried emergency wards.

photo from http://www.panoramio.com

Lifeline emergency said he had to wait for 2 hours since there were lots of people. They made us go to their Orthopedic floor saying ”maybe” the doctors would accept walk-ins. They weren’t.

We went back to the emergency ward and I asked the guy in reception if there’s anything they can do just to relieve the pain for now. He handed me a form and said we had to wait. Buying Panadol in the Pharmacy was easier than filling up that sheet of paper.

Knowing there were people who came before us, it was really ok for us to wait if only they could have shown at least a tiny bit of concern. My husband was showing them his wrist and the guys in reception didn’t even look at it. The best they did was deliver their rehearsed speech ”you have to wait for 2 hours,” perfectly and in the coldest manner.

My husband’s case wasn’t life threatening. But what if it was. All I could think of is, what if I had a kid and he broke his wrist and there was internal bleeding and these guys didn’t see it because they were too busy typing away in their computers.

I know that emergency rooms are full of toxic people. But working staff should know that most of these frantic walk-in patients just need an itsy bitsy show of concern or assurance to calm them down.

Is it really that hard to talk to patients with compassion (even an artificial one would do), to hold or touch them and ask where it hurts, to feel their temperature or to give them those free pain relievers that medical sales representatives leave for doctors.

I wasn’t even in panic mode last night. But when that guy in reception handed me the form, his tone and his look gave me the feeling that we were a hopeless case. This is the same hospital that gave me a doctor who prescribed a pill that has been banned in the UAE.

Lifeline hospital, we gave you a second chance. Your services do not live up to your name. If I was a dying person, your rope will never be my option for a lifeline.

Do I recommend this hospital?