However, I am not sure if it is such a blessing. We must have wasted at least a whole 24 hours in various waiting rooms in the past two weeks. As you cannot get a doctor's appointment in Brunei. You can only get a permission to see the doctor on a particular day. You are expected to show up, pick a number and wait. And wait. And wait.
As I am a woman, I of course have to see the midwife first who then performs the triage. Either you do get a permission to see the GP or alternatively you may just have your BP measured and sent home with some random prescription. My daughter had a severe infection in her arm about a year ago. It took us 2 cycles or antibiotics and several MMS to various doctors before we even saw our first doctor. Yes - we were diagnosed through picture messages! Resulting in surgery and a massive scar in her arm, I decided to become a bit more forceful with the local healthcare, and nowadays it is very likely for me to see the doctor on the same day. But I can't still manage an appointment!
The other afternoon the midwife rang me to inform that the specialist doctor will see me at 8am. I was delighted. A short waiting time, and an appointment. Silly me - at 8.45 I still hadn't seen the doctor. At least he was at work, just buys with other admin but sometimes the doctors don't even turn up before 9-9.30. And there they all, ill patients, waiting outside to be called by some person who isn't even at work yet.
Our friend who works in the system speculated that they won't give appointments as the locals wouldn't show up. At least by giving them an approximation - the day when to turn up- doctors' time won't be wasted. It may be true. The few times I have had to wait in Ripas, in the local hospital, the whole family turns up with entertainment and picnic and don't seem too bothered about the system. They are allowed to take days off work for hospital appointments, and thus don't seem in any hurry to see the doctor. Or then it's just me, the orang puti (the white man), whose blood pressure is raised by hours of waiting.
The hospital is another case in point. It also made me chuckle that they have a new swanky hospital building with state-of-art booking systems. But when they press the next number to be called, only 12345 blinks on the display. Which makes me think that the numbers given out are just random, and the system is just stroke of luck. When your paperwork is picked up from a pile, it is then your turn. As you cannot see the running numbers anywhere, nor can the reception staff tell you if there are many people in front of you. Or no one has ever asked, and they are confused, I am not sure. Also you have to book your day's appointment at separate tills- however, they are manned by the same people and are just around the corner from each other. Surely the same computer system can run various bookings at the same time for different departments? Although, I wouldn't know for sure, I've never worked in a hospital.
When my daughter finally saw a specialist in the hospital (see above) we had to go in every 2 days to get the wound cleaned despite of having a clinic just on our door step. We were instructed under no circumstances to go anywhere else and let no one else to clean it except for this specialist's own staff. When the wound was healing they rather let me to deal with it and gave me a bag of equipment than us going to see a nurse close to us.... Makes me feel so safe!
I do sometimes feel silly and too frugal with this, though. There is a private hospital with actual appointments. Or if you walk into A&E, there is never more than 30 minutes wait. I might just start using them, considering that their consultation fee is only about £25, rather than complaining every time about the same thing that I cannot change!
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