After so many visits to this government clinic for my monthly medical check ups I have become familiar with the arrangement of the building and its compound.
There is a big signboard inside the compound beside the main entrance announcing that the clinic is undergoing renovation work. On the signboard the clinic management even appeal to the visiting public to bear with the inconveniences caused by the ongoing renovation work.
This signboard has been there since the first time I first visited this place four months ago. I never fail to look at the board because it is erected in such a prominent location that it is the first structure that greets you as you drive your vehicle up the ramp and past the main entrance to park your car in the compound.
All this time up until this morning I have never seen any sign of refurbishment work being carried out though I did see small piles of sand dumped here and there in the compound. The interior of the building and the compound where the public park their cars look the same then as they were before.
However this morning as I was queuing up behind about 30 people ahead of me waiting for the clinic to open its doors I suddenly became aware that the tarmac that I was standing on had been resurfaced. Surveying the environment I saw bold white lines being painted on the black tarmac to mark out the individual car parking lots in a herring bone type of arrangement.
That explains why today the cars were so orderly parked. Previously motorists parked their cars haphazardly as they like with no consideration for other users. There were many instances when some car owners resorted to asking the clinic management through the clinic's PA system to appeal to owners whose cars were blocking others to remove their vehicles.
The fresh tarmac and the new car parking boxes that I saw today are the first real improvement that I have seen coming.
The next change that I would like to see is a makeover of the interior of the clinic which has seen better days.
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| Lining up to get in |
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A line of patients had just formed when I and my wife walked into the compound of the Seri Kembangan government clinic at 7.30am for my medical appointment.
At 7.30am the clinic staff had already opened its door for patients to take their numbers though officially the clinic is supposed to open only at 8.00 am. I reckon some people were already standing in the line from as early as 7.00 am.
My number was 6006 and my wife's 1034. Like everyone else we sat down on a row of fibre-glass seats in the waiting area to wait for our numbers to flash on the LED screen counter. Unlike private sector institutions eg banks the numbers are not flashed in accordance to sequence, but in a random fashion. Thus if your number is 6006 and you see the number 6005 being announced in the electronic board don't assume that the next number will be yours. Likewise don't assume that the clinic has called your number when you see the number 6210 in the electronic counter. I suspect this situation is because the person responsible for collecting the numbers delivers the numbers to the registration clerk in random batches.
Although my wife took her number a few persons after me hers was electronically called ahead of mine. In contrast I finished my blood tests before she was summoned into the doctor's examination room.
By the time both of us finished our business two hours have lapsed. Considering that the clinic has to attend to hundreds of patients a day, the two hours that we had to spend inside the clinic in relative comfort is acceptable. Some times in the more established private clinics where there are many patients you may have to wait up to one hour to see the doctor and get a medical prescription.
For a nominal fee of RM2 per person for medical consultation and medication(senior citizens 60 years and above get free treatment) you get all the basic medical treatment that you need for a steal. Even the medicines are prescribed in large quantities, at least a month's supply I guess. In my case during the previous visit the clinic prescribed me two months supply of medicine. I guess they do this to space out the frequency of repeat visits for each patient.
In contrast, in a private clinic the general practitioner will charge you at least RM40 for treatment of simple ailments like sore throat and give you at the most 1 week's supply of medicine only. If you see a medical specialist be prepare to cough out at least RM100 for consultation, and extra for medicine.
