I wrote last time that I would write on schools in Addis. I disappeared owing to problems in accessing the blog edition site. Now that I can access it well, I’m back with more stories about everyday happenings in Addis.Do allow me to shift from schools to one particular incident that got me thinking about our healthcare.
This is what happened to a friend of mine:
A person he knows closely had a car accident and suffered multiple rib fractures. He was taken to the biggest government hospital and they told him to go home after checking the X ray. His condition was not ‘critical’ enough to get him admitted in the hospital. Even if it was, there would probably be no beds available in the surgical ward. He was taken to a private hospital after three days because his health deteriorated, stayed there a few days and got discharged. After three days, he had to be taken again to the same hospital because he became very sick. The X ray revealed that he needed a surgical intervention. When the physician on duty consulted (on phone) the surgeon who was on ‘on call’ duty, the surgeon advised him to keep him till morning with some antibiotics and he’d see him in the morning (mind you – the surgeon was ‘on call’ and yet didn’t want to come). The duty physician, however, was not at all comfortable because (he believed) the patient was in a rather critical condition. So, he advised them to take him to another hospital and also offered an ambulance (they, of course, had to pay for it – Br. 150 for a ten minutes drive). They took him there hoping and praying that the surgeon on call would come. He came and did whatever he had to do and the patient is more or less in a stable condition now.
