an experience I can never forget

I went to collect my biopsy result at a local hospital on 16 Aug 2006 but was made to wait more than an hour. Patients who were behind me in the queue were called in first. I had an inkling the biopsy result would turn out to be bad news.

I was now the only patient left in the clinic. The ENT doctor finally called for me. I walked nervously into her room. I noticed her eyes were avoiding mine as she quietly held the door for me. I looked at her & asked, "It's cancer, right?" She did not answer but asked me to take a seat.

After what seemed like ages, she finally spoke, "I'm sorry, you have nose cancer." Her voice was not steady. It seemed to me like she was trying to hold back her tears. It was not tears of sorrow, but tears of regret.


In the last one month, the ENT team in that hospital had persistently dismissed my blocked ear as nothing serious. They kept insisting there was nothing wrong with my ear, even when I told them many times, almost with tears, that my ear had become worse. The biopsy was finally done at my insistence, and only after I had made a lot of noise & warned them that I would go to another hospital. The biopsy result proved I was right after all.


Fast forward one year, after my cancer treatment, I wrote to that hospital's CEO to tell him my story. He called to apologise for the undue stress his ENT team had caused me & promised to investigate. I hope the hospital has taken steps to ensure the same mistakes do not happen to other patients. And I also hope that all doctors would learn from this unfortunate incident and make an effort to listen more to their patients.

For the record, I asked to be transferred to the National Cancer Centre at Singapore General Hospital for follow-up cancer treatment. NCC is a premier medical institution in Singapore in the treatment of cancer (http://www.nccs.com.sg/).

Valuable Advice (for the benefit of future NPC sufferers)
1. Always choose a hospital you can trust (based on what you have heard from family & friends).
2. If you prefer to be treated in a restructured hospital* as a subsidised patient, you will first need to get a referral letter from a polyclinic.
3. If your polyclinic doctor refers you to a restructured* hospital "because that hospital has no queue" but you don't feel comfortable going to that hospital, please raise your concerns with your doctor.
4. If the doctor refuses to refer you to the hospital of your choice, I suggest that you go to your preferred hospital's Accident & Emergency (A&E) dept. It may cost more (S$80 at the time of writing) but it may save you your life. 

useful notes :
In Singapore, if you intend to consult a medical specialist in a restructured hospital & be treated as a subsidised** patient, you will need to obtain a referral letter from a government-owned polyclinic or the A&E dept of a restructured hospital.

* A restructured hospital is a public hospital.

** As a subsidised patient, your medical bill will be subsidised by the Ministry of Health (the government), so you will not have to pay the full medical bill. If you are hospitalised, you can choose to stay in a Class B2 or C ward. A "private" patient, however, will have to pay the full medical bill and can choose to stay in a Class A or B1 ward.