It is no secret how painstakingly hard it is to find a "good" doctor. A colleague, citing her mother, says it's like a gambling, for one cannot be assured they will be treated well.
"Other than misdiagnosis, the doctors did not answer my mother's questions. They seem to be in a constant hurry and have their hands too full to sit and explain a diagnosis in simple language," she says. That's the most common experience.
It is like expecting a police officer to emphatically jot down a report of a theft when they are overwhelmed with similar cases.
There are plenty of untold stories of people trying to find a doctor that they feel comfortable seeking treatment from and trust. Newspaper columns abound with complaints about everything from doctor's mere unfriendly, apathetic manner to their wrongful, sometimes fatal treatments.
Young mom Prita Mulyasari, whose fate has captured media headlines, is no pioneer in this issue. Her sharp and detailed complaints got on the hospital's nerves and they failed to handle her complaints carefully. She wasn't asking for too much, just an explanation about her illness and the treatment she was being given.
The list of doctors who have harmed patients is long. Many have gone on trial for their fatal negligence, but many incidences go unheard and ignored.
Hospitals - and their doctors - as for profit businesses, have forgotten on ancient, basic principle: The customer is king. In their case this means patients, regardless of if they are well-wheeled or not.
What happened to former ruler Soeharto shows how the attitude of doctors can change based on who their patient is. For months leading up to his death the public was exposed to tales of generous doctors sharing updates on the man's day-to-day blood pressure readings and types of injection he was getting, just because he was a "somebody", an extraordinary individual who happened to have political baggage, even on his deathbed.
Do we have to be a connected to get proper treatment when we are in dire need? With more than 230 million people in Indonesia, I guess there is still competition for such attention.
We all see how hospitals refashion medical facilities and services like five-star hotels in order to lure patients. But they forget the human touch, which is the core of any good hospitality business.
Business is business and business principles change quite sluggishly over generations. Some noble professions - including medicine and education - must tread the line between serving a humanitarian cause and bringing home the bacon to their shareholders.
But whatever hat they wear, doctors are service providers. They are human and liable to err, but the least they can do is stick to their well established code of ethics, which among other things states that patients are entitled to their medical records and the right to give or refuse consent of a proposed treatment.
However, it's working the other way around - doctors think that patients are commodities and feel they must book as many as possible within their brief "working" hours. Naturally, they don't have time to build a humane, personal relationship with their patients. This is all too evident in hospital waiting rooms, where our presence is reduced to a number.
Besides the Hippocratic Oath, doctors here are bound to comply with a code of ethics that, if thoroughly read, contains noble and comforting values. One of them is to ensure the confidentially of one's medical records and ensure consent from a patient before performing certain treatment. Yet in real life, so many are forced to file complaints against negligent doctors.
As they are seen as lifesavers, doctors tend to play God, believing the convenience of patients comes last and that their decision on medication and treatment is indisputable.
Perhaps some doctors still see themselves as healers in the exclusive circle of a royal entourage, as they were at the dawn of modern medicine, when they stood equal with priests and the advisers of kings. But this is not the case today, as patients are aware of their rights and know where to shout if they receive dubious treatment.
Outstanding medical knowledge and the ability to make the right decision quickly are still the most important qualities a doctor can possess, but this means nothing without the human touch.
Customers may not expect their physicians to be all smiles and chit-chat - manners that much depend on individual personality - but general hospitality should be a compulsory subject in medical schools. In the meantime, when patients complain about poor hospital service in order to save others from the same fate, doctors (and hospital management) should take a few chill pills.
That is not too much to ask, is it?
The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.
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