Make health your wealth

AFTER over 30 years in the medical profession, we have seen numerous patients and their families being burdened with medical expenses, which could lead to personal bankruptcy.

Here are some ways for a person to keep his or her medical expenses down.

> Acquire information – an informed patient tends to be not only healthier but also spends less on medical expenses.

In this day of the Internet and Google, every person who can read should be able to learn how to stay healthy and what treatment option is available for each disease.

After seeing a doctor, ask for the diagnosis, or possible diagnoses; recommended tests and procedures; and finally the suggested treatment. Every condition, test and treatment has a name and knowing it allows the patient to look up more information and weigh the benefits and risks before making any decision about what to do.

> Live healthily as staying healthy is the best way to keep medical fees low.

The smoker not only spends money on cigarettes but is also guaranteeing multiple medical visits to treat heart and lung disease that will inevitably crop up in future.

In 1990 in the Lancet, a healthy lifestyle of adequate exercise, stress management and dietary restraint was shown by the Lifestyle Heart Trial to reverse blockage of the coronary vessels of the heart better than if patients were only on medication without lifestyle change.

In 2004 in the Circulation, exercise was shown to be better than the invasive stenting procedure in reducing the need for hospitalisation and subsequent repeat procedures among patients with coronary heart disease.

> For treatment to succeed, faith is essential but seek a second opinion.

In this day of increasingly profit-motivated medical services, getting a second opinion about any serious condition is important. However there is a right and wrong way to do it.

Understand clearly what the first doctor had said by getting a written report with the diagnosis, tests and treatment recommendation. Keep a set of all tests done. Then when seeing the second doctor, present all these for him to see, but allow him to repeat them or do any other test he wishes.

After that, again get him to clearly name his diagnosis, test and treatment recommendation.

Too often patients clearly show their distrust for an opinion and are preoccupied with something they have heard, sometimes even from non-medical sources.

When being treated by any doctor, a patient must have full faith in him for treatment only works if the patient believes in it. This is not to say you have to forever be under one doctor. If treatment is unsuccessful, or service poor, change doctors.

> Do not postpone death if it extends suffering.

All human beings inevitably die. The acceptance that death will come allows a patient, family and doctor to correctly make the remaining time pain-free and as comfortable as possible.

Too often excessive amounts of money is spent on medical procedures that merely prolong suffering and do not give the patient a meaningful life. A large proportion of healthcare expenses come in the last year of life.

Emotional as this may be for patients, families and doctors, we must all try to remember that the aim of healthcare is to give a good quality of life as long as possible, and not to prolong suffering.

While we cannot prevent the commercialisation of medicine nor hold back its many expensive and life-saving advances, we each have to take responsibility for our own healthcare and its expenses.

We want to live a comfortable and fruitful life, for which good health is essential.

To have good health, start with a healthy lifestyle, then be informed about medical diagnoses and treatment options, and finally, accept that a peaceful, pain-free passing is part of good healthcare.

DR ONG HEAN TEIK Consultant cardiologist CHOONG YOKE LENG Retail pharmacist Penang