Reading the News

I hate reading the news anymore.  It's full of awful, real-life tragedies, a good reminder that all is not well in the world.  Unspeakable things that happen to children or the elderly or ...everybody in between.  Senseless act that are unthinkable to the likes of those who cannot fathom...and then there are the statistical stories that raise debate.

One of our local television stations has an online site that allows comments on the stories.  Some of those stories have ignited a lynch-mob mentality in the general public.  For instance, the cops set up 10 cameras inside a church because folks in the congregation had noted a 74-year-old man stealing from the collection plate.  He did it - they caught him on all 10 of the cameras.  I wonder if he was senile.  I wonder if he was eating cat food. You have to wonder - did anyone in the church approach him about the matter.  And everybody wondered if these 10 cameras would have been of better use somewhere else.  Opinion ranged from - he stole, he's guilty.  Fry him - to What Would Jesus Do?

And then there was a statistical story that stated - inmates live longer than people who are not in prison.  Well, I can understand that.  They do get superb medical care (you know I'm going off on this one, don't you?) at the tax-payers' expense, but they're human, too, and of course they'll get care.  The public was upset about this report - mainly because a lot of the population cannot afford the same medical care - and some woman piped in - Well, if they work, they pay their doctor's bills, their transportation, and for the bag lunch they take with them on the trip. Facts is facts.

I'm thinking she's a relative of someone in prison who is writing to ask her to deposit money into his trust-fund account so he can cover his bills, because regardless - the most an inmate is charged for his medical care IF he doesn't have a chronic disease is 7 bucks for the initial nurse's sick call (no charge for chronic disease).  If he or she is referred to the physician or PA, they're seen for free.  And the transportation costs for outside appointments and all related care  fall on the state, as does the lunch provided every day.  The woman is being bilked.  Too bad I couldn't enlighten her, but I like my job.

But the story made me think about the ones who don't live longer than those out of prison, and what makes the public resent where their tax dollars are going.  When I worked for nursing, there was a young man who was in need of a GI consult.  It was approved by UR, and I called to set up the appointment - no less than 8 times.  I spoke with a woman who told me I had to schedule that with the physician, and he was only in on certain days.  So I called.  He was out.  He was in surgery.  He didn't return my calls.  And when I did get up with him, he didn't want to talk to me because I was only a secretary who couldn't give him the clinical information that was in the chart.  No, don't fax me the records.  I want to talk with your doctor.  Great.  It so happened her days at our unit did not coincide with his days in.  But she tried, repeatedly for a week.  And one day shortly after that, the nurse called me and said - If you don't get Mr. X an appointment, he's going to be d-e-a-d dead.

God.  That's a heck of a thing to lay on someone who, in the opinion of the Great GI Doctor at the prestigious outside medical facility, cannot read a chart.  I panicked.  I did not want to be responsible for someone being d-e-a-d dead.  I called the PA and told her - I've tried, they don't return calls, you know they want to talk to you  and YOU can't even contact them.  Can you send him somewhere else?  She could, she thought...and so it was on the phone to UR and I told Jane - If we can't change this man's appointment location, he's going to be d-e-a-d dead.

She allowed us to change it.  He had an appointment scheduled for the next day.  But it was too late. It was too late, actually, before he ever transferred in to our unit or came to prison.  He had a large pancreatic mass that was malignant.

And then I think about the ones who are bilking their family out of money by saying - if I don't have this much money, I won't get medical care.  The ones that drink 3 cups of hot coffee right before declaring a medical emergency and the nurse pokes a thermometer in his mouth, and the ones who sue because they can.  The ones who have every medical test known to man - and they're all negative - because they don't want to work road squad, the ones who deliberately inflict self-injury so they can set up a law suit and not have to work after they release from prison. and the ones who come right out and say - Well, aslong as I'm in prison, I might as well take advantage of it and get my medical needs met.  Because on the street, like most of us, they can't afford it, otherwise.  And then there are the really sick ones who don't try to sue and don't complain as much as the well ones.  All they want is to get better.

There are those who take advantage of the system, and THAT is something to resent.  There are those whose lives are saved because health care is provided, and there are those who don't fall into the above-mentioned statistical report because nothing can save them. 

I guess I'm all thought out now.