I am Jane: A pain above the neck, my jaw

I woke up today all 'psyched' to get my other wisdom tooth extracted. The other one came out naturally, so I was really praying that this one would too. I really don't know whether or not this is a blessing in disguise, or it's just my stupid luck, but Dr. Pritam Singh called in sick at 10am (I thought government servants start work at 8, 9 the most?) and so my appointment was cancelled. And after much 'convincing', I finally got dragged out of the house to Dr. Ng's clinic (he was the one who taught me all about impacted teeth) only to find that he wasn't in today. Nevermind him, I saw his partner Dr Lim, who rescheduled me for tomorrow, for SURGERY. Did I tell you that I was sitting beside a man who had his mouth violently jabbed and stitched before Dr Lim came over? I wanted to run out at that point. Don't even need to feel the needle, I can already imagine the pain right now. And the agony of knowing that someone is STITCHING your gums together. And so, I went across to Hospital Taiping only to find out that we have this new policy where some other doctor must refer you before you get to see the specialist (so, if a cancer patient walks in and says I need to see an oncologist, and you tell him to go see Dr. A who will only be free to see you next month, and after which Dr. A has to run some tests, and supposing nothing is screwed up, your test results are out, and he has to diagnose it and supposing that he comes up with the right diagnose in time, and finally writes you a letter to enable you to see Dr. B the oncologist, who, because he has so many patients and seminars to attend to is only free to see you one month later, who, again, runs some tests on you, and finally diagnose you with the last stage of cancer, (that is, if you haven't already died during the waiting process), and says that you will have to go for radiotherapy or what not to lengthen your already-shortened life due to all the waiting when they could have started therapy earlier. Seriously, having the spare cash to afford private medical bills is almost a necessity now. Why don't they subsidize that for us?
We used to complain about how long the queues are at the government hospitals, and being a 'good' minister, he finally appeased the people by promising shorter waiting periods. Whether or not our good minister came up with this idea, or it defers among hospitals, I don't know. What I do know is that the hospital has a new tactic called "Chase the patients away". It makes sense, of course, but it's so typically Malaysian. Twist and turn the words and make matters worse. We might as well set up a school for that, since our MPs have obviously mastered the skill and are now passing it down to government servants. I will give you examples.

1. The other day, I went over to Pokok Assam's Dental Clinic, and I casually asked if treatment was still free for pensioners' children. The guy replied me by saying, "Memang dari dulu ada polisi, tapi free untuk isteri pesara sahaja". Bloody hell, my bracers were FREE because my dad was a government servant/ pensioner/ somewhere in the midst of that. So how is it that you tell me the policy has not changed but is somewhat so very different? Please don't bullshit with me. If there's one thing I know how to do, it's COMPLAIN.
   
2. My bro needed to have his medical exams done in a government hospital, it was stated in BLACK AND WHITE, and even though my mum showed them the letter, the very clearly said "Kita tak ada masa, pergi klinik swasta". Stupid fella! Don't you know how to read? It's a REQUIREMENT to do it in a government hospital. We don't fancy waiting you know. It's not like we get any benefit from making you see another extra patient.
3. My mum wanted to fix an appointment for me so that I'd get to see the dentist when I finally come back to Taiping (yes, I'm THAT particular when it comes to pain. Bangsar clinics are all filled with young cikus whose heads are wrapped, with arms so skinny it looks like their arms would be detached instead of my tooth being extracted). They said that they weren't taking in new patients and that I'd have to go to a private dentist. The only reason I want to have it done in the hospital is because they have LASER equipment which will hopefully ease my pain. And since they're going to cause me physical pain although INDIRECTLY, I demand compensation!

Now, my family is of a middle-class income. Therefore, we HAVE the money if the need arises for painful events like these. But bear in mind that more than half of Malaysia still lives in poverty. And HALF of that half still aren't getting any kind of subsidies (unless election is coming)! So, please tell me what these people are supposed to do when they have tooth aches? Since it's your procedure to make us wait for AT LEAST a week, I think the poor kid would have probably banged his head on the wall to replace his toothache with a bigger headache. And let's just be frank, and emergency ward isn't really and 'emergency' ward because your emergencies get tended to way long after the emergency is no longer an emergency. I suggest you come in, pretend to faint, and then possibly give symptoms of which will look like you have a fatal disease just so you'll get a doctor's attention. If they quarantine you and so happen to forget about you, just touch somebody and start coughing. I'm sure they'll give you attention now. Same thing goes for the TMNet customer service hotline. Please tell me what is efficient in Malaysia. Wait, I just answered that. Our TAX collecting system, although I doubt it will hold any longer. Self-assessment? Shish, more like "We're giving you the freedom to give as much as you want", not that I'm complaining.

And so, wish me luck for tomorrow, and pray that my literal pain will be lifted. I still haven't mustered the guts to do it yet, actually.