Knowing when to seek medical attention
I cannot vouch for the veracity of a new study released recently that pegs nearly two-thirds of the Saudi population as hypochondriacs, but somehow it’s believable. The study notes that only 24 percent of emergency room patients actually need urgent care.
As a Saudi I must confess that every time I have a tickle in the throat or a sniffle I am ready to race to the hospital for treatment. Because, really, it could be MERS (although I don’t know what the symptoms are), or the swine flu or maybe the black plague. Better to be safe than sorry. My foreign-born husband, on the other hand, prefers to sit at home and wait it out. So far he’s been lucky and has survived the illnesses he so recklessly chooses to ignore.
But the study does not paint a flattering portrait of how Saudis view medical treatment, their own health and the consequences of burdening hospitals with unnecessary treatment. Saudis are famous for self-diagnosis although they have no training in medicine. If at all possible they prefer to avoid the bother of going to the hospital for treatment when they have a local pharmacist who enjoys dispensing medical advice with the authority of a physician and the knowledge of a pre-med student. Antibiotics are the answer to everything, from an ingrown toenail to watery eyes and a runny nose.
It’s the fact that Saudis have access to free medical care, which encourages many to bypass the pharmacy to take advantage of a doctor’s time. There is a sense of entitlement among many citizens that a physician’s time belongs to them. They exaggerate their symptoms and see the doctor who discovers that what the patient thought was early signs of brain cancer was actually a headache signaling the onset of the flu.
They are sorely disappointed when the doctor prescribes some over-the- counter tablets, juice and plenty of rest to treat their illness.
So what happens when an emergency room nurse takes the temperature of a patient complaining of being infected with MERS and finds that the thermometer reads normal? The child in pain with a broken arm in the next room must wait an extra hour for treatment. An older man who had suffered a heart attack may lose his life because his treatment was delayed to treat someone with a sore throat.
Last week, my daughter received her vaccination for measles and meningitis. Her father and I were present and after she received her shots, we went to fill a prescription at the hospital’s pharmacy. Within 15 minutes she suffered a mild allergic reaction with a full-blown body rash. Allergic reactions to a vaccine are rare, but our daughter was as bright red as a tomato. We rushed back to the vaccination room and a nurse alerted a doctor. He spent the better part of an hour patiently explaining that the rash was mild and our daughter was in no danger. His time with us was not to treat the baby but to soothe her parent’s fears.
Although our concerns were legitimate and our daughter did require medical attention to determine whether the allergic reaction was serious, neither my husband nor I concerned ourselves that we were taking the doctor’s time away from another patient who may have had more serious problems. Perhaps the doctor thought we overreacted, but he never said so. Emergency room physicians are the same. They are not going to tell a patient that they are wasting his time and putting other patients at risk. It’s incumbent upon the patient to use common sense when determining whether they really need a visit to the hospital.
This is where the Ministry of Health comes in. An awareness campaign would help educate Saudis to know when a hospital visit is necessary and to help them determine whether the medical attention they need can be treated at home. The free medical care system that we have in place has fostered a degree of laziness among people who know they pay nothing for medical services. This is not to advocate placing barriers to make it more difficult to receive medical care, but to provide the public with information that explains what it means to burden hospital personnel with unnecessary treatments that puts other patients with life-threatening illnesses or injuries at risk.
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view
