Getting a wrong thing right

There's a new problem in town lately. Whether or not it will be a real one, is left to be seen. And it isn't only my disabled friends who are worried sick over it.

It's regarding all this talk on the media – both in the electronic and printed press (as well as in the social circles) – about whether or not pharmacies should be the only ones to dispense medication.

Currently, the practice here is patients can get their medication from their doctors after visits to their clinics.

All of my able-bodied friends whom I talked to, don't think that passing over that sole responsibility to the pharmacies is a good idea at all.

It's already bad enough, they say, to have to crawl out of bed when one is terribly sick in order to go and see a doctor.

And when they finally do, all they want next is to get the consultation session all over with.

Then, quickly grab their medication – and get home as fast as their feet and cars will take them, in order to try and sleep the whole thing off.

But it would be nothing short of a nightmare, they say, if their trip doesn't end at the clinic.

The dreaded thought of having to go and look for a pharmacist afterwards, in order to complete their doctors' visits in packed towns and cities with scarce parking around would be enough to make them even more sick than when they started their day.

For people with disabilities, it's horrendously worse.

It is true that disabled people usually go to government hospitals for regular checkups. However, if you think that the experiences they face are a "bed of roses", you are very mistaken.

One of the chief problems is finding a disabled friendly car park.

Wheelchair user S Jeyaraj from Rawang, who makes frequent visits to his specialist, points out that disabled car parks which should be totally convenient to disabled patients often never are.

"Not only are our car parks abused by the able-bodied, but they have no shelter (unlike the able-bodied hospitals' directors') to protect us from the sun and rain," he laments.

Other issues include steep ramps, excruciating waiting hours, and lack of physical help from hospital staff when patients have no choice, but to come without a friend or family member to help them.

Sometimes it is much easier to go to the nearest clinic to your home for quick help. These include for emergencies like a fever, stomach upset or a migraine.

Some kind doctors will oblige wheelchair patients by entertaining their phone calls. They will even step out from their clinics and attend to you in your car. This makes it a whole lot easier than attempting to get into private clinics which often lack wheelchair access.

When compared to a government hospital, at least the disabled are able to get to some sort of emergency help faster.

It's not unusual for a disabled patient to be ticked off by a doctor in a government emergency centre for not seeing a doctor during the regular hospital hours instead of turning up for treatment during off hours where emergency cases are a priority.

A noble point, but sometimes disabled people find it hard to get their families to accompany them during their own commitments, and thus can only come when their helpers are free. Hospitals should make some room for these situations.

As for non-wheelchair accessibility, local councils have also to take the blame. Clinics and banks are great places to start with sheltered car parks, along with the necessary wheelchair ramps.

Excuse me, but isn't this already an obvious thing for our governments to do with an increasing disabled and elderly population?

Pharmacies, if you ask me, are no better. There are many pharmacies which sell wheelchairs, but provide no wheelchair access whatsoever to users who visit them to buy their products, whether they be persons with walking difficulties, wheelchair users or the elderly.

Often their wheelchairs are kept upstairs and out of sight. Potential buyers are unable to physically test them out before making a purchase, even though some of them can cost RM1,500 and above.

We are showed pictures of them in brochures instead.

This also goes for medications and other types of products.

Instead of being able to get right to them where I can see and examine a whole array of selections in order to make a right choice, I am forced into a situation where I have to depend on a salesperson or shop assistant to bring them down to me.

They usually don't bring them all down, but what they think are the "best three", even though they have no clue as to what I need.

Then I am forced to make a decision, even though I am dissatisfied with them, because I feel "guilty" for having made them walk up and down for me for the products.

A customer in a wheelchair should never be subjected to situations like these which is wrong and unethical.

Shouldn't it be their moral and social responsibility to provide wheelchair friendly facilities to us, especially as disabled people, we are often the end users of their products from which they make good profit?

Also to the fact that we will keep coming again and again as repeat buyers?

On the subject of medication, there have been times when a pharmacist had suggested another medication which he claimed was an "improved product" instead of the one prescribed to me by a government doctor. It was for a particular pressure sore that I had.

There was no way where I could call up the specialist there and then to check if the cream suggested by the pharmacist was "better" for my wound instead.

Weeks later when I met the specialist on my appointment day, I was told that the one recommended by the pharmacist was a wrong one and that I should stop using it at once as it was eating away at my skin.

In conclusion, the planners and policy makers should spend more time in urgently and significantly working hard to get such basic wrongs in our society and infrastructure RIGHT before thinking of any outlandish measures for the next generation. – March 2, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.