It is common for kids in my old school in Indonesia (take note I went to a private school) to miss school at least once or twice a year for medical check-up purposes (& shopping spree) in Malaysia or Singapore. There's no medical screening ritual in my family and i used to think

it's due to my parents' indifference towards health. When I moved to Singapore, I was enrolled in a public secondary school where quite a handful of the student population is under the financial assistance scheme. I noticed that many of the students in my sec school -

(at least those who are close to me) tend to not treat their illness seriously. Not feeling well? Go polyclinic, get MC, and take paracil loh. Sometimes, they even just stay home and take panadol. No referral to a specialist, no blood test, no screening, no nothing.

Some even still force themselves to come to school despite feeling drowsy and stuffy.

I find this to be ironic -- my Indonesian friends would travel all the way to Singapore to see a dermatologist to treat their acne or an immunologist to take an allergy test, but my friends who are Singaporeans since birth wouldn't even visit the doctor -

even after missing their period for 6 months or having severe backpain after falling.

Now that I'm older and aware of my family financial situation, I've realised that my parents' obssesion with herbs and alternative medicine isn't due to my parents' skepticism with science. And the absence of health screening ritual in my family isn't because

my dad couldn't be bothered to take leave from work. It's simply because my family can't afford it (wow what a groundbreaking realisation).

but I still find it funny la like walao everyone in my family is either a citizen or PR and there's lots of money in my dad's medisave account how come we never do health screening like my indo classmates?? no need to talk about mount e la, we never even do colonoscopy in sgh???

also isn't it funny how my indonesian classmate was born in SGH and did all her shots in sg (which means her family had to travel to sg like every month) when I, a red passport holder was born in harapan bunda and don't even have an immunisation booklet :))

i remember taking the MMR shot after sec 3 eoy because i was scared HPB would bar me from taking the o levels bcs they might think my family is an antivaxx or something (they didn't have my immunisation info in their database)

walao i got distracted

this thread is supposed to be a rant about how inefficient the healthcare system in singapore is and there is so much to be improved

when i was 15 i had a knee injury from dancing. according to the ct scan, there's nothing wrong with my knee. i told the doctor that my knee gets really painful every now and then (in fact my knee is currently being a bitch and i smell like minyak gamat).

the doc told me do an MRI. and as you all know, MRI costs a leg and an arm (haha). however, i can't claim my dad's medisave to pay for my MRI because it's not considered urgent.

must wait until i cannot walk first ah to be considered urgent