Today here at the Guam Desk, we will be discussing Health Care. More specifically, shitty health care.
In the four years that I have lived on Guam, I have never had to avail myself of treatment at Guam Memorial Hospital for any reason. That unfortunately changed the other night, and I wanted to share my experience with the public as a word of warning.
For the past couple of weeks, my beloved wife has been suffering the effects of a pinched nerve in her neck. This pinched nerve has caused her no small amount of grief, causing her a lot of pain in her neck, shoulder and her entire right arm. She has been getting treatments from a chiropractor and another doctor up until now. Sunday night, though, the pain became unbearable for her, so we decided to hit the Emergency Room at Guam Memorial Hospital.
As I said earlier, this was our first experience with GMH, and I’m hoping it will be the last one. We arrived a few minutes after 10 PM to find that the waiting room for the ER was packed to the rafters with people awaiting treatment. We were told to fill out a form and that a doctor would be with us right away. We sat in a room filled with people, and noticed that not very many people were actually being seen by a doctor. There was a lot of activity from the administrative staff, who seemed not so concerned about what was wrong with anyone, but Very Concerned about who did or did not have insurance. An hour goes by, and we have yet to even be seen by the triage nurse who will take her vitals and ask what the hell is wrong with her, much less an actual real life doctor.
Another half hour slides by, and by then both me and the wife are well and truly pissed off. We have both been in emergency rooms in other countries that were more organized, better staffed, and showed more concern for the patients than this shithole does. The wife is in a ton of pain, and there are others in the waiting room who are even more screwed up. A little boy sits beside us who is obviously having some serious trouble breathing, but alas no one on the hospital staff seems to give a shit. They are worried stiff about their little forms being filled out correctly and placed in their little box, which they will get around to looking at a total of 3 times in two hours, but they seem immune to the people actually waiting for treatment.
Finally the wife is seen by the triage nurse, who takes her vitals and then puts her paperwork on a clipboard. Thirty minutes later, she is finally taken in to the actual Emergency Room, in which I am not allowed to go. I go outside, and knowing that I’m going to be there for a while judging by our treatment so far, decide to get a Pepsi and a smoke. I light up right below the sign that says “No Smoking on Hospital Grounds”silently daring anyone to say anything to me about it. Outside in the Emergency Room parking lot, there are a ton of people just sitting on the curb, waiting, waiting, waiting and more waiting. Mind you, this is at 1 AM on a Monday morning. The air of Utter Failure and Desperation surrounds everyone out there.
The wife finally emerges, and tells me that we have to wait for the discharge paperwork to come through. The doctor, who she said treated her like she was some kind of scumbag, gave her a shot for her pain and a prescription for Percocet. She looks like she feels a little bit better, which is good. Another 30 minutes pass, when we are finally given our paperwork and told to pay the $100 deductible for the emergency room visit. Now I knew that since we were going to an ER, the deductible would be a little high, but $200 seemed more than a bit outrageous.
We finally get home around 2 AM, but sleep doesn’t come right away. Both of us are still smoking mad about the way we had been treated at this supposed “healing center”. Now I understand that ER’s are busy places, and sometimes you have to wait to be seen by a doctor, but this was Fucking Ridiculous. People are treated like so many cattle, and there is an air of Hopelessness about the place. It’s as if they simply Don’t Care, and if someone drops dead in the parking lot, oh well.
Before this, I thought all of the rumors and harsh talk about GMH that I had heard were exaggerations and so much bullshit. Now I know that it’s as bad as people have said, or for that matter, even worse. From now on, we will absolutely avoid GMH for all of our health care needs, and if either one of us ever needs surgery, we’ll get it done in Manila. The added price of an airplane ticket would be better than having to deal with these Hopeless Fuckers.
Yeah, I dare anyone to tell me that health care on Guam isn’t broke, even if you do have good health insurance. There are syphilis clinics in Third World countries that provide better health care than GMH. Unfortunately, no one in GovGuam seems to give two shits, and I’m Real Sure that our new governor is going to do something about it.
It’s been three days now, and I’m still mightily pissed anytime I think about this.
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