What price - social responsibility?

So, if you've not had contact with a H1N1 case, you might well pass it off as a joke.
H1N1 has been the subject of many of my colleagues' jokes, like, "how I wish I can be quarantined and work from home".

Well not now, at least not for me.
To be clear, I've had proxy contact only. A friend (let's call her Friend A) who was with a group of exchange students for a meal (or something). She learnt yesterday that 4 of the group of exchange students were confirmed H1N1 cases, but still proceeded to a local dance competition with some friends and myself (no symptoms what!) One could well argue, how irresponsible, but I won't go into that now, as this is not the point I want to make in this post (at least not from this angle).

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WHAT HAPPENED

I developed a bad cough last evening ard 7pm, with another friend (let's call him Friend B) who was in the group. We both sat through dinner with a group of friends, and then a movie at Cineleisure, not really suspecting anything yet. On the way home, I suddenly remembered Friend A told me on the same morning that she had direct contact with the H1N1 case, and asked her about it again (was fetching her home as well). Friend B then exclaimed he just developed a bad cough too and that was my "freak-out" point.

After many painful minutes of sitting and thinking it through, I decided that I wanted to be responsible and head down to TTSH, so I asked Friend B if he wanted to follow. He was hesitant, as he had a overseas trip which he already paid for coming up on Wednesday. But he made the decision to join me as well. So off we went. Reached TTSH, couldn't find the A&E entrance (OK so I admit I am an idiot), so in the end, I called the 993 hotline.

This is where the infuriating part of the night started.
"Sorry all our customer service officers are busy now. We will get to u as soon as possible". I heard this for over 7 minutes. I mean, this is supposed to be a epidemic hotline, I'm not exactly sure what is the service level availability for calling this number, but surely you can't tell me that so many people are calling this hotline at 12 midnight on Sunday? Was the CSO sleeping or what? Anyway, after the CSO picked up, she proceeded to give me a mumbo-jumbo about the procedures.

I asked a casual question: how long would the screening take?
CSO: "A while".
Me: So after that, how long do they need to confirm the results.
CSO: 24 hours, and u can go home first, the results will be informed to u 24 hours later. (not in exact words but the meaning is the same.)
Me: SO I AM SUPPOSED TO GO BACK TO INFECT MY FAMILY MEMBERS FIRST THEN U TELL ME THE RESULTS?????????
CSO: .....er....

I am really against speaking to idiots on important matters like these; they give you crap info and if u execute according to their plan, results will highly likely be disastrous. Anyway, during the time I spoke to her, I managed to find my way to the A&E entrance, and I told her I didn't need her anymore.

Went to the A&E entrance, got us some masks to wear then went to register ourselves as possible H1N1 cases. I could see the surprised look in the nurse's eyes, and it seemed for a moment that she didn't really know what to do on her own. She called a number quickly after, then after confirming a few points (did we travel? - no; did we have direct contact with H1N1 case? - no; did the proxy who contacted with the H1N1 case develop symptoms? - no), told us to register at the A&E counter.

There was a flurry of activity, nurses who knew about our cases gave us the eye, and we were "kindly" referred to as, "ohhhh, those cases ah.." After 10 minutes we were herded into a tent area, after which we proceeded to wait for about 40 minutes for a doctor to see us. OK, I may be a layman, but I really thought that H1N1 would be more scary than it sounded, and we deserved urgent attention? Or maybe the doctors didn't know what to do with us, so they had to consult each other in that meantime.

After I got called into the doctor's room, he told me that since I had no temperature and no other symptoms than a bad cough, I would not get H1n1 screening as I only had proxy contact. Meaning I didn't have direct contact with suspected H1N1 or confirmed cases. OK, fine.
Then I asked, so, do I have to pay the A&E fee then? Doc replied if u return within 24 hours for the same condition, the fee would be waived. What utter rubbish.

If u come to my shop to buy something (say X), and I gave u something else, say Y, and told u to pay the same price (especially if u thought that Y was supposedly cheaper), would you? I didn't come all the way to A&E to get cough medicine at 2am!!

After I got the bill, I went to the payment counter and said I refused to pay. To her credit, the nurse on duty said that it wasn't within her call to waive charges, and said the bill would arrive at my house after a few days. I would have to contact the business officer for waiver of the A&E fee.

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My question now is, does social responsibility come with a price tag? I could have been like those irresponsible few (and it would have been SO MUCH EASIER!), did things as per normal, go eat dinner at crowded places, watch concerts, and only check myself in when the symptoms ACTUALLY stopped me from doing things I do normally. And then what? A whole new cluster of cases? Is that what the SG government wants?

If proxy cases will not be screened, then jolly well communicate this right from the start, at the registration booth. I didn't really have to go to TTSH at almost 1am, sacrifice some very good (and well needed) sleep and waste the other A&E cases' time for this. And after that, be demanded to pay up for something I didn't get?!

Grand plans are only such, unless the execution is properly done. The Health Minister should look into what is ongoing at hospitals, and especially at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where the heart of the action is supposed to be? I heard yesterday that I should have gone to the Communicable Diseases Centre. My bad, but my understanding is still that first stop is TTSH. I hope that this article will bring some attention that it is the CDC that people should go to if they suspect they have any H1N1 symptoms.
Symptoms include vomitting, shortness of breath, coughing, fever.
(As I write this, I heard that a friend from the same dance group got a high fever - God protect him.)

And that, don't bother to go to check up if u don't have direct contact with H1N1 cases.
Don't waste your time, and petrol and money.