The specialty of generalism: Reclaiming
patient care in a market-driven system
When Rosario coughed blood while in office, she decided to do as any middle-class pinoy patient would: Go to the ER. A doctor saw her after a grueling four hours. When he ordered the tests, he told her, “Why only now?” Rosario was taken aback, but she knew, growing up in the slums of Tondo, what the correct response was: meek submission. For she hadn’t known where to go. A friend recommended her pulmonologist, but it seemed an overkill for a simple cough; the cost of an appointment would’ve eaten up her budget. Faced with an expensive bill, she signed a “home against medical advice”. In a few days, her cough worsened, her breathing grew heavier, her appetite crashed.
