06.25.07
huh.
Posted in Random Ramblings, Social Responsibility According to Me at 4:26 pm by meldee
So I’ve been trying and trying to study for PR, sadly I think I’ve hit a mental roadblock. So, pfft.
I spent a good hour today ringing up hospitals and clinics in Subang/PJ trying to find out whether they had the HPV vaccination that I blogged about earlier. Let me tell you, it’s not easy—being put on hold, so-called pharmaceutical professionals not knowing what the hell HPV is or keeping up to date with breakthroughs in the medical world—shit man, I’m not even in the medical line.
My major conclusion is that hospitals are cheaper than clinics, after ringing up a good 10 clinics and hospitals. Hospitals (private) can afford to charge less than privately-owned clinics; I dunno about government hospitals though.
One experience doing these round of calls weirded the crap out of me.
Finding numbers on the Superpages, I picked a few within my area to ring up. One of the last calls I made was to this specialist women’s clinic in PJ. After being passed to two different people, the doctor finally came on the line and seemed friendly enough; yes, they had the vaccination.
He also asked me why I was calling, and I mentioned, ‘I’m doing personal research’. Apparently this ‘R’ word is taboo, because he got really defensive and told me ‘to be honest with myself on why I’m doing this research’ and slammed down the phone on me.
Obviously I was shocked. Perhaps private practices get calls from big pharmaceuticals’ marketing departments trying to find out things, posing as patients, but for goodness’ sake, don’t jump to assumptions immediately! When a real patient rings up to find out more I hardly think it’s right to accuse them of having an ulterior motive!
Just as I was having a gripe to my grandmother, the doctor rung back (must’ve had caller ID) asking what company I was from. I was like, er, what? And he kept insisting I was from a company and he wanted to complain to my supervisors wtf! He kept insisting also that I was doing research, and finally deigned to ask what kind.
I had to clarify then that it was personal research, because I wanted to find out about it because hospitals were all charging different rates. Honestly, so defensive right? All the other places were fine giving me the information I needed, it was just this one place. He was curious to find out why I wanted the vaccination, very patronisingly asking if I was ’scared to death of getting cancer’.
WHAT KIND OF STUPID QUESTION IS THAT?
It’s safe to say everyone’s scared of dying to a certain extent, especially of something as scary as cancer, and if there is a prevention why not go for it right? He made insinuations that ‘big companies’ are just using scare tactics on the public, and just want to make money out of us, especially young urban female students.
When I told him about the reading I’ve done up on it, he also said in a very ‘sigh, you young people, think you know so much…’ fashion that I’d obviously not done enough research. Huh! If you want to compare the medical knowledge of someone like me to that of his, obviously there is no comparison right? You’ve received formal training in a diverse and dynamic field, I am but one of the trillions of hypochodriacs out there,cut me some slack won’t you?
Being talked down to like I was an idiot made me get really defensive and I wanted to flare up already. Especially after he invited me down to his clinic to buy him lunch or a coffee in exchange for his views on this topic. He even promised not to charge me consultation; wow, how kind.
Which brings up several questions: if his clinic does have the vaccine, why is he on such a moral high horse about it? Wouldn’t he rather not stock it if he didn’t believe in it? If it doesn’t work, wouldn’t there have been more media attention to this alleged ’scam’? Also, would the Australian government be providing young female citizens in the country free vaccinations if they didn’t believe in it?
Journalistic mode then kicked in and I came upstairs and checked out more of the pros and cons of getting the vaccination. I came up with this article, which I found rather helpful. Honestly, if the only ‘con’ to it were the price (ranging from RM400-500; trust me, I made the calls) and the social debates of whether it encourages promiscuity, which are entirely individual choices, why not?
I’m not saying, yeah, go out and have sex ‘cos your chances of getting cervical cancer are reduced, what you want to do is none of my concern right?
As the author of this article I linked argued, just because you have a tetanus jab, does that encourage you to step on rusty nails? Same application.
I admit I am also curious to go and find out why this doctor is so against the idea of the HPV vaccine and his views on it. However, I also do not appreciate my time being wasted by someone who would want to pass judgments on my personal lifestyle choices (pfft, not like I have much of a lifestyle save for the two instances of clubbing this year; most of it is spent studying!) or my health concerns.
But yet, I keep thinking there has to be more to it than that, no? Hmm, food for thought.
/Edit
For those of you interested in finding out more, the Australian government’s site has a very good FAQ section. Have a read. Wah you all damn lucky I am doing research for the masses hey LOL.
rachel said,
June 25, 2007 at 8:30 pm
first of all ’salut’ to you for actually making the call,despite the fact that it was a personal research.on your behalf towards the doctor “what an asshole,okay?” Yea i guess malaysian health sector is not quite efficient.what more when it comes to women and health?do you think it would have been different if it was a female doctor??i think it might have.and ur right,these are important information for women within our age group.I mean,after all,like it or not,we’re the ones whos out there with our active lifestyles(lets face it la,the new generation).So maybe first of all,people need to just ACCEPT the fact that times are changing are people,including ‘women’ are out there having sex..everyone’s doing it.have u considered approaching our local women’s organization?what do they have to say abt this?(p/s:our PR exams is in another 12 hours,here i am ranting in your blog)toodles~
Jayelle said,
June 26, 2007 at 12:49 am
ohmigod before i opened the comments, i wanted to write “what an asshole” already..but guess i’m echoing rachel’s thoughts.;p
Why he so lansi wei! I mean shouldn’t he be proud that young people these days are trying to find out more about their own health related problems? keeping up with times and shite like that;(
asshole. i hate pompous people.
meldee said,
June 26, 2007 at 7:37 pm
i also hate pompous people *nods to rachel and jo* haha rachel you damn power la can rant rant here some more leave early, phew! hope it was do-able for you, i blanked out but sod it, it’s only pr nyahahaha.
what to do, the generation of our parents find it hard to accept increasing westernisation. well, you send us to western tertiary education institutions, won’t we inevitably end up thinking along similar lines in terms of liberalism and choice? damn contradictory la. i suppose this is the same way their parents opposed the whole rock n’ roll culture back then, so we need to be patient
wonder what our kids’ generation would get up to!
but yar, good luck to anyone else who wants to try and be resourceful. hopefully you don’t get shot down, pfft.
kathia said,
June 27, 2007 at 2:09 am
i have a whole argument on how the things we are doing not to be westernisation but a natural progress of industrialisation. prior to industrialisation etc etc, the ‘western’ world was just as conservative, if not more. we’re in different stages of social development and just because there is a ready example out there, we readily label it westernisation. but that’s enough theorisation for a night. exams are over.
as for doctors. i’ve learnt to realise that the type of profession doesn’t really denote responsibility, accountability or even niceness. they are still humans, completely capable of mistakes. being doctors don’t make them suddenly ‘nice’. the fact is, tonnes of assholes go and become doctors every single day because they want to play god. they want to be someone respected. and being a doctor, to be honest, requires the least effort to be ‘respectable’. i know because half my A-levels classmates have gone to become doctors. half of them are complete assholes, including one who spread rumours about me seducing him with dinner, wine and a white t-shirt. he wishes it were true of course. to think i spent a good part of my a-levels being best mates with him. let’s all hope we never land on the operating table of this fool.
Jayelle said,
June 27, 2007 at 1:56 pm
kathia: uh huh uh huh.. i know of a few very academically inclined boys who are complete assholes. fucking full headed pricks.
meldee said,
June 27, 2007 at 8:08 pm
well said kathia. yeah sonia was arguing in class about something similar, and how what we call asian values are actually a subversion of western victorian cultural ideals. but i think everyone’d zone out if we were to yabber on about that
hmm..doctors as arseholes, yeah that’s a concept. *some* of the medical students we deal with in the WAC and MUSA aren’t all that great either. they’re possibily on their way to being pricks too heh.
van said,
June 29, 2007 at 3:07 am
Hey been lurking for awhile, anyway since your journalistic nature seems interested in doctor issues, here’s an article on doctors who won’t prescribe treatment or examine their patients because their religious beliefs and principles don’t allow them to–and a long debate about whether that should be allowed, should doctors be completely objective blabla…here it is: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19190916/
meldee said,
June 29, 2007 at 4:17 pm
sweet! thanks van!
hehe i like to think i’m interested in all issues…but i’m a bit of a hypochondriac (read: health-paranoid!) so i like to yibber on about these things. cheers!
cheryl said,
July 29, 2007 at 4:39 am
I have my second shot of the vaccine at the end of the month :s I actually tried to discourage my mum from taking me for it in the first place, but she kept going “but people are more promiscuous these days, so it’s better if you just have it” and I was like “yeah thanks a lot mum” and she said “no, I don’t mean you, but what if you ever have a boyfriend who’s been with other people? You don’t know who you might end up with. In the car now.”
So me and my sister have had the first injection and we have 2 more to go before the thing’s complete. Anyway the thing’s not harmful and it’s better to be safe than sorry right?
I can’t believe the doctor would act like that, if for no other reason than he’ll make money if you get it at his hospital/clinic. That alone should make him want to extol the virtues of the vaccination. Patronising potential patients wont exactly win them over.
yeah, pretty dang weird hey? stupid doctor.
meldee: at least you’re protected now…or well on your way