The people's clinic.....

Yesterday, I was coughing like a mad hyena and I certainly wasn't feeling well at all. As I was driving back to the sanctuary of my home, I decided to check out the 1Malaysia clinic against all my humanistic sanity and equilibrium of understanding. As I stepped into the clinic, there were only about 6 of us there and the attending elderly nurse at the counter was pleasant. She was recording the names of the patients into a huge book and she politely asked me to take a seat before calling me to the counter. She was courteous and nice. I must say that as a patient, I am indeed comforted by her ways. After the formalities of writing down my name and NRIC number on the patient card, I was asked to wait for a while before my name being called. She told me politely that it shouldn't take long and I just sat at the row of blue-coloured cushioned long seats.
It was about 20 minutes later that my name was called and I stepped into the Consultation Room. There to greet me was an elderly man ,whom I shall leave unnamed, who attended to me. I told him of my predicament about the bad coughs and that I had difficulties in sleeping at night. Like any other old fashioned "doctor", ( I know that he is either a HA or an MO ! ) he told me to take me more liquids and prescribed some medicine for me. He had a torchlight like the one I have in my car [ bought for RM 10.00 from the Chinese woman! ] and he flashed the lights on my throat while asking me to take some deep breaths to check the activity of my lungs. He then smiled and told me that my lungs are in good shape and no worries there. He then threw in a pack of tablets meant for itchiness of the throat and advised me to take it only in the night as it could caused drowsiness. We joked a bit as he wrote down the prescription for me and handed me the medicine. I took the medicine, thanked him and I was out of the room. All in all, I must say that it was indeed a pleasant experience at the clinic.

The next important question is : Did the medicine help? Well, I must say that I dozed off rather quickly after the tablet but in all honesty, there was relief momentously but my cough persisted in the middle of the night. So, there you have it. There are ups and downs in the prescription of medicine from this clinic compared to our more illustrious knife-sharpening private clinics nearby. I would say that the objectives of the 1Malaysia clinic is a good thing but with limited supplies of variety of medicine, it is not for chronic difficulties. Would I go there the next time? My answer is probably.......