Bad experience with AEA

Bad experience with AEA

My wife and I insist on the best medical treatment for our
children, so I agreed when she chose AEA International (a.k.a SOS
Medika) on Jl. Arteri Cipete when our youngest daughter was sick
the other week. After a nurse had checked our daughter's weight,
we were surprised to hear the doctor talking about her weighing
nine kilograms. When informed that the child was about 14 kilos
the last time we weighed her, the doctor discovered that the
nurse had misread the scales. The nurse laughed it off like no
one's life was at stake.

We tried to keep our faith in AEA, going there again several
days later when our eldest daughter, Tamara, fell ill. Ten
minutes after we had been in the doctor's room, he realized that
the administrative staff had mistakenly given him the files for
our younger daughter, Tiara, who had been there three days
earlier. He shook his head in disbelief, probably relieved that
malpractice suits are not the norm in Indonesia.

May we add one more peculiarity we experienced at AEA: you are
not allowed to see the doctor of your choice. When we register to
visit, say, Dr. Harsono, the staff will respond, "Oh, any general
practitioner?" We have to repeat our request until they realize
that we know he is on duty.

In the waiting room, a nurse will come and say, "You want to
see a pediatrician for your child, right? Dr. Harsono still has a
lot of patients waiting." When we tell them we can wait a whole
hour for the doctor of our choice, they finally give up. What
happens is usually the doctor himself will stroll by a few
minutes later and calling us in. "But we were told that you still
had three patients," we inquire. "Nonsense," he says. "Do you see
any other patients waiting?"

A friend once joked that AEA is a clinic for expats' maids and
drivers, and we promptly argued that anyone who can pay the bill
should be able to get any medical treatment in Indonesia. What we
would like to know is, are we getting this kind of treatment
because we are Indonesians (and thus treated as maids and
chauffeurs)?

But we can pay our bills, and my wife was even a full-paying
member once (before she realized that AEA was not so
international after all). Do Jakarta's expats put up with this,
too? Or do patients' names have to be on some foreign
corporation's medical account to get proper attention at AEA?

EKO SANTOSO

Jakarta