Easy way out on the streets

BUYING medicines on the street for personal use is dangerous for one’s health.
The people that go to the media and cry foul about the issue – have they visited a public hospital lately?
It’s obvious that they only go to private hospitals and get first class treatment.
Let me tell you fancy people what it’s like for an ordinary Papua New Guinean living in the city.
Going to public hospitals and clinics for a flu shot, malaria blood test, or a simple pain killer pill, the queues are excruciatingly long and it takes forever.
Nurses take long lunch breaks! If you’re lucky, half of them will be back at 3pm, but they go home at 4pm.
To top it off, sometimes when you do get to see a nurse, he/she says the medicine is not in stock, come tomorrow. Argh!
Some of us cannot call in sick because we do not want to risk losing our minimum wage jobs.
Most of us are street sellers; losing more than a day is money lost. Not to mention risk losing the spot we use to sell (arguing with other vendors to get the spot back is a headache on its own).
So that only leaves Saturday/Sunday, depending on the religious denomination.
Oh the queue during the weekends, it is mindboggling! You’ll stand till you faint.
That’s why we buy medicines on the street.
You people need to get off your high horses.
Better yet, shut up and upgrade our hospitals.

Bata Lux
9-Mile