Third world hospitals

are not "tin sheds" on the outskirts of the "square mile" of the city I live in. 

There have been some complaints recently about the "emergency department" of the major hospital in the city.  It's an almost new hospital and was one of the most expensive buildings in the southern hemisphere when it was built. It is also possibly one of the worst hospital designs ever built...but it is not third world.

Nephew, the doctor one, has worked there. There is no staff room, no meeting rooms for staff, no canteen where they can snatch something to eat and no place where they can catch a short nap if they are on extended duty. The building is laid out in such a way that access is difficult and confusing. Every patient may have their own room but there are not enough staff employed to cover each area and it is much more difficult to monitor staff than it should be. (It is why I once had a phone call from a patient at midnight and had to get back to the hospital to get her the help she needed.)

All that said however the hospital is not "third world". It is very definitely "first world". On the whole the staff do their best.

Third world hospitals are something entirely different.  Yes, some of them are actual buildings - although I have been told of hospitals in tents or even under plastic tarpaulins. They are often filthy by our standards. I know of one that has a dirt floor and a roof that leaks when it rains - which happens frequently.  There are no beds.

In many other places there are not enough beds. Patients will lie on the floor. Unless there are family members to help they will get almost no care because the nursing staff have other things to do. It is family members who will bring you anything you might get to eat.  Medication? You might be lucky to get some if you are writhing in pain but it is more likely they won't have any. The medical equipment is not there because they cannot afford to buy it.

I could go on. There are "good" hospitals in those places, in the quieter and more peaceful places but they don't have the resources our hospitals have. They are not the waste of space and money that the big hospital here is. This one was built as a political gesture. The medical profession kept telling them it was not adequate. Something could have been built with more beds and more facilities for half the cost and it would have been just as valuable, perhaps more so. They are repeating the mistakes with the new build of the children's hospital - but the government is not listening.

It doesn't make any of our hospitals "third world" however. I am reminded of someone I knew who each year spent half his annual leave in a third world hospital. The locals built it around him. He started in one small hut but it is now a plain, functional building. It has one small luxury - a small room with a cot like bed that the doctor on duty can snatch a few hours sleep on if everything is quiet. That's a good, third world hospital.  I don't think we have anything to complain about here.