Saw your editorial this morning on the ailing health sector (The Island of 13 Oct), and would like to relate the following experience for whatever it’s worth to doctors concerned and the authorities and the public.
Recently we had to consult a specialist doctor in Colombo at a private hospital. In his name only 20 patients are accommodated for online booking on a given date and beyond that you have to contact the relevant hospital to get a booking. It says, ” Dr. … Special Notes: IF web appointments are full or not given-Contact …… Hospital for special appointments. When contacted the hospital asked you to come and get an appointment in person at 4 pm while the doctor was listed as seeing the patients at 4.30 pm. When these “special” appointments are issued you are charged Rs. seven thousand (7000) but a printed receipt is issued only for Rs. 5,000. A handwritten slip is issued for “special care charges” amounting to Rs. 2,000 whatever that means. There was no special care for the patient which we were made aware of. One could assume that this is obviously a ruse to charge patients extra money beyond the officially stipulated amount, without formally accounting for that, thus avoiding paying taxes for the extra amount charged. Then, we were surprised to see that even though we did not make the booking via online facility we had been added to the formal online patent’s list thus making the whole transaction appear above board. It may be that in these difficult times doctors also need to fight the effect of inflation on their incomes. But why not negotiate for a higher official doctors’ fee and pay the taxes like the ordinary masses are made to do from their meager incomes.
An ordinary citizen