Oct 18 2012
Injustice x 3
http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/West-Coast-Premiere-Of-The-Waiting-Room-Tonight-In-Santa-Monica/35616
First, having mostly exposed to the hospital images portrayed in shows like “House” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” I have to admit I’ve had a major culture shock when I saw this film. First of all, I was appalled by the ineffective system. It’s not like I was not aware of this but seeing the actual procedure of who gets in first and who waits all my moral standards were about to collapse. How the man with a bullet moving inside his body had to wait so many hours while a constant junkie was in the surgery room, taking time and resources from other people who did not deliberately had their health. How this man who needed imminent surgery being tossed around from staff to staff explaining every single detail to receive the surgery, how people were categorized into numbers and processed as if they were malfunctioning machineries waiting to get fixed everything seemed to not make any sense.
At the same time, I was astonished by some staff like the lovely women who threw jokes and ensuring comments at the patients, the doctor who, in such urgent and stressful situation, tried his best to stick to do whats best for the patient, and the social worker who tried to take care of the aftermath of the patients. Honestly, who would want to work in such a place where dire situation continues day after day and gives no time to even have a decent meal? I grew more respect for the people working in the public hospitals as I watched more of the film.
The film, in general, was almost painful to watch. But at the same time, I was touched by the drama and slight bit of humanity left in the workers and patients. Throughout the screening I thought about was how I was lucky to be born in a society where I don’t have to wait nor pay much to see my doctor. (check, Korean Health Care System) I was just so thankful to not have been in that situation but on one hand I also was afraid that this might be my situation one day and became interested in searching more about this field.
This is a link to a similar but more satirical film released in 2007.
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/sicko/26778/main
OMG! During the entire film, I was making reference to Grey’s Anatomy too! I kept going in my head, this is like Grey’s Anatomy. However, Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t really show much of the waiting room, but more of the trauma that is involved at the hospital. Therefore, when I saw the film, I was just SHOCKED as to how many people were at the waiting room, how packed it was, and how long people were waiting in the waiting room. I guess television doesn’t like to emphasize the truth behind hospitals, but the glory of it.
Even though I don’t watch Grey’s Anatomy or House I was quite shocked myself seeing the madness that goes on in the emergency room of a public hospital. I’ve been in a regular hospital before and even when the lines aren’t excruciatingly long, the wait is still ridiculous. I remember one time my sister got a huge cut on her pinky and needed stitches so we took her to the hospital. There were literally only 4 other people in the waiting room but we still had to wait 6 hours for her to get stitched up. The point you bring up about the morality in the waiting room is a controversial topic. I wouldn’t exactly call it disorganized or dysfunctional because if you were placed in that situation what you do? I don’t think there will ever be a day in which everyone receives equal care in the waiting room. Not because the hospital doesn’t want it, but because circumstances change and the need for time and space create situations in which some people will end up not receiving the care they deserve when they deserve it.
During certain points of this documentary I found myself wondering, “what would House do?” Having only been to a hospital once over ten years ago I only recall having to wait about two hours to take an x-ray and four hours to get a cast. After seeing this documentary I am also appalled at what I saw and at what’s going on. How can they make people wait so long after being injured so badly and how can some people like that nurse remain so optimistic?