And here is another good one….

I mentioned those flat-out unbelievable excuses Cambodians tend to make. Now the Prime Minister chimed in with one of his own.

A Cambodian-American doctor who had returned to Cambodia recently criticized the Cambodian medical profession. He maintained they are mostly ill-qualified to treat even minor illnesses. As anybody who ever visited one of the many clinics dotting the Cambodian landscape can tell nothing could be more true. Sometimes these doctors prescribe anti-depressants for headaches. A doctor who examined my step-daughter a few years back diagnosed air and water in the abdomen. My daughter had complained about severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. As is normal in Cambodia, he prescribed 2 hours of IV, 2 days of observation at his clinic and after that she was sent home with a cocktail of meds we didn’t know what they were for.

When she got to the U. S. we saw a gastroenterologist who immediately diagnosed a certain syndrome and started treatment which eventually ended in surgery. If she had not gotten that care she would have died.

Recently, a woman had an accident with severe head trauma. The husband took her to a large Cambodian hospital. The doctors said she need a CT scan of the head but they needed to pay first. The husband, a poor farmer, didn’t have the money and begged for help. The hospital staff, e. g. the doctors were adamant. Long story short, the woman died.

There are countless examples like these occurring in Cambodia. The medical profession through their associated had the nerve to demand an apology from the doctor who, needless to say, refused.

Now comes the good part. A couple of days ago, the media reported that the Prime Minister went to Singapore for a check-up. What? He is now a real big fan of Facebook and people took to this page asking why he went to Singapore? Well, he said he went there because Cambodia doesn’t have the necessary equipment yet. Ah, isn’t that interesting? He went on to defend the Cambodian medical profession and said, indeed, he had more check-ups on a quarterly and semi-annual basis all conducted by Cambodian doctors. Mr. Prime Minister, couldn’t you have come up with a better excuse? That is just so damn lame that not even middle-school students will believe that.

And why please do all the people with some money go to Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and even the U. S. or Europe for medical treatment. Because 80% (my estimate) of Cambodian doctors are quacks. Some clinics are only operated by nurses; the patients don’t even know that this is only a nurse not a doctor with a medical degree. Such was and is the state of Cambodian health care to this day.