So Cheap!
Just an incident which made me so annoyed recently. A little girl was brought from her school after falling face flat while running. She had sustained a swollen eyelid and nothing else. We took care of her and decided to observe her for a while before letting her go. In the meantime her guardian was sent for and she promptly arrived thank God for the gsm.
I stepped out for lunch and on my arrival met the little ones guardian who stopped me right in my tracks when I was introduced as the attending doctor. The first question was 'doctor the medicines you gave her will it bring the swelling down?' I answered her question and she thanked me most kindly. I noticed there seemed to be a problem when I walked in but I waited till the patient and her entourage had departed before I asked any questions.
After they left, the nurse on duty informed me that there had been an unpleasant scene with the lady demanding to know why our bill was so high, she complained about the bill for the doctors visit and said that other hospitals she knew did not charge so much for visiting their doctors, She also said she was taking the girl to another hospital.
Can you my dear readers guess how much this very expensive treatment cost? Three guesses. nope not N1000, you are wrong not N5000 either, go much lower Yes you must have heard the story before, It cost a whopping sum of N250.00. The doctors visit cost N170.00 and the analgesics cost N80.00. And before you tell me that the treatment is beyond the reach of the average Nigerian this lady certainly did not fit into those considered members of the low socioeconomic group, with a Honda 'end of discussion' I think she left that group a long time ago.
Anyway thankfully she did not repeat her complaints to me, if she did I may have gotten so angry i wont have known what to say. Something good came of that exercise, our bills were reviewed upwards(not downwards o) and even though a visit to see me (yes o you have to pay a toll) is not as much as what it cost me to call a carpenter to bang in two nails to my door, it certainly will give the lady who complained about our fees something more to talk about if she ever visits us:)
I stepped out for lunch and on my arrival met the little ones guardian who stopped me right in my tracks when I was introduced as the attending doctor. The first question was 'doctor the medicines you gave her will it bring the swelling down?' I answered her question and she thanked me most kindly. I noticed there seemed to be a problem when I walked in but I waited till the patient and her entourage had departed before I asked any questions.
After they left, the nurse on duty informed me that there had been an unpleasant scene with the lady demanding to know why our bill was so high, she complained about the bill for the doctors visit and said that other hospitals she knew did not charge so much for visiting their doctors, She also said she was taking the girl to another hospital.
Can you my dear readers guess how much this very expensive treatment cost? Three guesses. nope not N1000, you are wrong not N5000 either, go much lower Yes you must have heard the story before, It cost a whopping sum of N250.00. The doctors visit cost N170.00 and the analgesics cost N80.00. And before you tell me that the treatment is beyond the reach of the average Nigerian this lady certainly did not fit into those considered members of the low socioeconomic group, with a Honda 'end of discussion' I think she left that group a long time ago.
Anyway thankfully she did not repeat her complaints to me, if she did I may have gotten so angry i wont have known what to say. Something good came of that exercise, our bills were reviewed upwards(not downwards o) and even though a visit to see me (yes o you have to pay a toll) is not as much as what it cost me to call a carpenter to bang in two nails to my door, it certainly will give the lady who complained about our fees something more to talk about if she ever visits us:)
She must have misread the bill and added two zeroes behind the figures.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the pointer as to blood donations. I told my other 'pajawiri' friends and we all had a good laugh. When its time again, we'll face your directions.
Are you serious? people are funny o. N250 ke?
ReplyDeleteHahaha, people are very funny, we too like awoof in this country. She probably wanted it to be free. I just read about the under 17's coach death. It is very sad news. His family said the govt shld have flown him abroad for treatment, this a govt who gave him 1million naira and a house in abuja after he won us the cup. Dem no try? We sure expect too much in this place. May his soul rest his peace
ReplyDelete@laspapi- she was just being plain silly if u ask me.
ReplyDelete@supergirl- yes o 250naira,i wish we had charged more.
@for the love of me- as our saying goes awoof de purge belle. I hope we learn in this country very soon that nothing good comes free, thanks for stopping by.