Her lab report

“Doctor, I tried last time as well as today. The nurse does not have my report” the poor woman said. She was seven months pregnant, and wanted her fasting blood sugar report. The resident doctor wants me to do the test again.” “Why? We will get a duplicate report,” I assured her. I got the nurse to write to the laboratory asking for a duplicate report, stating the original was lost. I remembered my conversation with the lab-in-charge, who had stated that she would not give out duplicate reports, since they always sent the originals to the nurse and obtained receipt. They did not have time to give duplicate reports. I had then written to the Head of Biochemistry to arrange to give duplicate reports if required. That letter had not been answered. The patient went all the way to the diagonally opposite corner of the campus, and came back to say, “they said they don’t have time to give me my report”. I rand up the senior Administrative Medical Officer, and asked him to sort out the matter. He took the patient’s details, and rang me back after 10 minutes, telling me that the lab-in-charge was unable to give the report because the blood sample drawn had been of insufficient quantity. When the patient heard this, she said “but they had drawn a full syringe of blood! I even fainted after they drew so much”. Was the lab-in-charge just playing a chess-like game of a countermove for my move? Sadly it was a patient who was the pawn being moved about mercilessly. I rang up the Head of Biochemistry and explained the matter to her, stating that the refusal to give a duplicate report to a patient was resulting in the clinicians filling a new request form, the patient making two visits to the lab- one for getting an appointment, and the other for giving her blood sample, the lab person performed the test again and used up valuable lab resources too, and the patient’s treatment was delayed a lot. She said she was short of lab personnel and could not help it. “OK, I will write to the Director about this tomorrow” I said quietly. “You have the habit of writing to the Director” she said accusingly. Was she referring to the time I had written to the director repeatedly to get my lab technician back that the Head of Biochemistry had borrowed for 15 days and kept for nearly two years? Or was she referring to the time I had got no audiovisual aids for teaching the students in the lecture hall managed by her, and had found that there was no responsible person in her entire department, all allegedly being in a meeting asking for a pay raise? “We are not discussing my habits”, I said firmly, “but management deficiencies at your end. By the way, all my letters to the Director are in the framework of the rules and regulations”. “Yes, all in the framework of the rules and regulations!” she said crossly. “So the patient has to have the test again?” I asked. “Why? We will give the duplicate report,” she said angrily. “But your lab-in-charge says the quantity was insufficient when they drew a full syringe of blood for only a sugar level estimation”. She had no answer to this. “Doctor, I will get the test done in a private lab,” the patient said finally. “I spend a lot coming here anyway, and there is the unnecessary loss of time too.” She did not seem affording enough, but this seemed to be the best alternative to her. I wondered if they believed the primary purpose of the institute was to pay salary to its employees rather than give healthcare to patients.