Here’s a stark contrast in healthcare service levels… During mid-August 2007, Christchurch Hospital A&E department were advertising on local radio… Not promoting their services, actually! No, instead they were requesting people NOT go to them unless it was absolutely essential! They were asking potential patients to go to their own doctor… and you just try finding one of them on a weekend! Basically, it seems unless your condition was life-threatening and immediate emergency care was required, they did not want to know you…

Here in Thailand, the hospitals not only cope, they are well staffed and welcoming. For heavens sake, they even have VALET PARKING!  You arrrive feeling frail, and you’ll be assisted from the vehicle while someone take’s care of parking it for you! People will focus immediate professional care on you!

Unlike Christchurch Hospital, where parking is still a nightmare… Try arriving there (as I did a while ago) with a broken Archilles tendon… I eventually found a park almost a kilometre away from the hospital, and hobbled very cautiously and very slowly to the Accident & Emergency department. On entry, I was asked my problem at the reception desk. On explaining my predicament, I was rudely ticked off for walking in! No sympathy when I suggested it was somewhat more dignified than crawling in on hands and knees, and that I’d already had to drive 130 kms to get there!   :-)

From that point, I was instructed to sit in a wheelchair and there I waited for over 3 hours before any more attention was squandered on me…