I was inside the glass bubble lift of the exclusive Prince Court Medical Centre, a five or six star, private hospital in Kuala Lumpur. When I reached the ground floor, I thought I was at the KLIA airport foyer. The lobby is that sprawling. A Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shop and a MyNews.com magazine and convenience store complete the illusion of an airport. On a wall next to the visitors’ seating area were all kinds of framed awards, recognition certs and citations hanging, leading me to believe I am at the lobby of an insecure advertising agency. If you ever been to an ad agency, you will know what I mean.
I went to visit a good friend who was scheduled for a spinal cord or backbone surgery costing RM140 000 to be paid for by insurance claims. Makes my recent hospital stay of RM 85 000 at at a non-elitist private hospital (courtesy of insurance too but I had to cough out an “excess” from my own pocket, leaving me bankrupt at a time when I can’t work. Much like car insurance accident claims) The charges for both hospitals looked like shopping at 99 Speedmart versus Ben’s BIG.
Shockingly, another private hospital in Jalan Ampang quoted my friend even higher. Pays to shop around as many people do not realise insurance is not a bottomless pit. There is always an accumulating limit to money claimed. Spinal cord surgery is very risky, highly specialised and rightfully expensive. On the the other hand, I see a disturbing trend on social media where people are going to this hospital for childbirth, using selfies with the baby as humble brags since geo tags are used for every shot.
One thing, I felt right away during the visit (at 10:30 pm) was that it is a very lonely place for an adult patient. No other patients and visitors were visible from the very private room except the nurse attending to his needs. It was like classy solitary confinement.
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