I am DOCTOR, so all prostrate before me!

So, I was down with a very bad flu recently. No energy to go to the polyclinic (the only clinic I have ever been to). No idea which other clinic I should go to since I have never been sick enough to warrant a visit to the doctor's. No worries, I tell myself. Go to the one-stop information centre - the internet! Found a clinic in the vicinity with the earliest opening hour - Blk 6 Holland Close, and made my way there.

Big mistake! Big, big mistake!

Clinic opens at 8.30am. I was there at 8.45. No one else around. Clinic assistant warned me doctor will only be in at 9.15. I didn't have the energy to go back home, so I took out my book and started to read, thinking this would be a peaceful wait - no other patients to cough and spew phlegm like I do!

Then the clinic assistants (there were 2 of them) started talking fast and furious in some language that somehow sounded very high-pitched to me. I started to wonder if I was at a clinic or a wet market. Of course, it didn't help that the flu is making my ears sensitive to such noises.

Well, just bear with it. Doctor should be in anytime soon.

9.15am. Doctor still not in. Wet market still very active.
9.20am. Doctor no where in sight. High pitched noises got higher. I think they are laughing at something.

Finally, at 9.30, the doctor came in, nary a smile.
Hmm.. did I do something wrong?

I coughed, spewed some phlegm, coughed some more.

He asked the clinic assistant to call me in.
"So, what is wrong?" he asked.

With the little voice I could muster, I pointed to my throat and whispered in my now-sexy voice "fever last 2 days, sore throat, cough, phlegm, headache".

"What colour phlegm?"

"White". So he determined I didn't have a lower respiratory tract infection just yet.

Then he took my blood pressure and placed his stethoscope on my chest area. Then, he sat down and said "Go outside and wait for your medicine"

Err... wait a minute? No advice on what I should do? Like rest for example? Or any information on what I might be down with (although it's obvious I have a flu) Or perhaps offer to give me an MC (medical certificate for medical leave)?

I mustered enough energy to ask "Can I have an MC, please, so that I can rest?"
He mumbled something under his breath and begrudgingly said "ok! wait outside!"

Boy, I don't know where this doctor is trained, but his bedside manners is totally zero! And isn't he worried that I might infect my colleagues at the office?

Worse, I felt cheated! I paid $25 (at least $18 of which goes towards paying my consultation with the doctor) and all I get is a question, the doctor playing with his gadgets and a gruff dismissal, all in less than 5 minutes! I even had to beg for an MC. To make matter worse, the medication prescribed did not work for me!

Almost everyone knows that the flu is often a viral infection and that antibiotics don't help. Nonentheless, I was prescribed amoxycillin tablets to be taken 4 *freaking* times a day for 5 days (imagine having to wake up at midnight to pop a pill!).

I knew I did something wrong. Should I have prostrated when the doctor came through the door!

Well, it's been over a week since my visit to the doctor. I am still sick. Perhaps it's time I pay a visit to the trusty polyclinic doctors.