Went to the NKF(National Kidney Foundation) dialysis centre in Petaling Jaya today. We were actually lost and just kept going around in circles. It was after an hour of endless driving and u-turns when we finally found the place.
The place is a 2-storey bungalow with 10 dialysis machines, with the staff of 4-5 nurses and 1 doctor. There would usually be 3 patients per machine per day. The patients are divided into groups {1,3,5} and {2,4,6}. {1,3,5} means that they go to the dialysis centre on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday ; while {2,4,6} means that they go every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Every session would last about 4 hours, and it's 3 times a week.
The doctor in charge(couldn't get his name, it sounded like the name of a diease that i wouldn't want to mention) was really inspiring. His did his MBBS in Mannipal and after that he did an MBA in Business Administration majoring in Health Care. He asked us to observe the patients and talk to them. Try to get a picture of what they are going through.
We went and talked to the patients. They were cheerful to have someone to talk to. I guess they were kinda bored sitting there for so long. I can imagine how it feels, strapped onto the chair for all 4 hours without moving! You just can't go anywhere with all the tubes attached to you. The TV was showing some crappy and boring pragrams, the patients didn't even looked at the TV. I guess it was just there fill the emptiness. When we first go into the room, it was quite except for the hum of the dialysis machines, the sound of the TV and the occasional chit chats between the patients and the nurses. The patients kept on emphasizing on the importance of health and how agonizing it was to lose it.
Back to the doctor, I had an inspiring lecture from him. He urged us to treat patients as a
person with a disease but not just the disease itself. The are many factors involved once you become a patient, all the usual psychosocial stuff, where it's far more complicated than just giving the appropriated treatment and management. He told us that the mind actually can do wonders, in relation to what he read about in a study where 2 wards were set up. In the first ward, the doctors just do their usual rounds and leave. Whereas, in the second ward, the doctors and nurses actually tell the patients that they are getting better regardless of the state of the illness. At the end of the study, they patients in the second ward were discharged earlier than those in the first ward. The doctor at the dialysis centre actually encourages the staff to do so. I actually overheard one of the nurses commenting that the patient looked better and prettier while helping her set up the dialysis procedure. It was really wonderful to see such compassionate people. These people are
the people that we need more in the healthcare sector. He is an example of who i want to be, someone who would make an effort to make a difference.
Before I end this, I shall quote what the doctor has said which meant a lot to me," Pratice medicine while trying to earn good money but not pratice medicine to earn good money."
