Excellent hospital service

I am a fairly regular reader of your paper and have noted that your correspondence column usually consists of a series of complaints.

As an elderly (67 years), recent expatriate who especially loves the people of this wonderful country, I would like to recount my recent experience to redress the balance.

I teach English at the Stella Gratia, a small Indonesian school in Jelambar, West Jakarta, and live nearby with an ordinary Indonesian family.

On Aug. 23, I was taken ill with very severe stomach cramps and discovered a swelling in my groin. I asked the family to call a doctor but they immediately took me, by taxi, to the Graha Medika Hospital in Kebon Jeruk.

A doctor was with me within one minute and he confirmed my suspicion of a hernia. Various tests were taken and I was given the option of a support or an operation, the latter being strongly advised.

I followed the advice, was admitted to a small ward with only two other patients and within three hours the surgeon came from his home especially to see me. Arrangements were made for the operation to be carried out on Aug. 25 in the morning.

I was made comfortable with pain killers and received the most careful attention from all the staff in the cleanest and most attractive hospital I have ever been in. There were three excellent meals and two snacks each day with courteous and efficient service.

For me the operation was a novelty. Instead of the usual anesthetic, which leaves one sick and dizzy afterward, I was given a spinal injection which paralyzes the lower part of the body and thus was able to chat to the surgeon and nurses throughout the operation.

By 11 a.m. on Aug. 26, I was able to return home. The cost was less than 600 pounds (about Rp 2,880,000). In England it would have been five times as much for a much lower standard of care.

The Graha Medika typifies the reason I love Indonesia. Happy, friendly, smiling people who give their all to help. Please stay that way.

Do not copy the West too much. We have lost our sense of family values, make sure you keep yours.

Thank you Graha Medika. Thank you Indonesia. I hope I can stay here forever.

BILL STARR

Jakarta