Are We Living in an Era of Widespread Incompetence?

Is this happening only in Brazil, or is it a worldwide phenomenon?

I don’t expect anything more from anyone to provide me with a service than incompetence.

When everything goes smoothly, I’m surprised.

For me to stay in just one field, medical care with my mother, I had experiences that illustrate well the reasons for my lack of trust in others.

My mother has the onset of dementia. She is baffled, and sometimes she has hallucinations. The geriatrician who assists her in the health plan prescribed a heavier drug to slow down the disease’s progression. A costly drug (almost one hundred dollars) and that could bring a series of associated effects. I would observe my mother’s behavior while a drug started to take effect to see if anything different was happening and weigh whether it was worth continuing the treatment or not.

Right away, my mother got diarrhea. I read in the package insert that this was a common side effect and that it tended to go away with time. I kept the drug, which could not be stopped without the doctor’s approval.

Continuous diarrhea.

After weeks of use and no improvement, I called the health insurance, asking the doctor to contact me.

She didn’t.

However, two days later, I received an SMS that contained a prescription (for the same medicine).

THE ASSISTANT SHOULD ASK THE DOCTOR TO CONTACT ME, BUT INSTEAD, SHE ASKED ANOTHER DOCTOR TO SEND ME A PRESCRIPTION FOR MEDICINE.

Why does anyone do this? To get rid of the customer? She understood perfectly what I said, so much so that she told me she would do what I asked. But she did something totally different.

I knew this because I spoke to a second attendant the next day (since the doctor had not contacted me). This one said that it was impossible to send the message to the doctor (!) and that I could only talk to her in a virtual consultation scheduled for a week later… Right after I bought a new batch of medicine (another hundred dollars, remember? )

During the consultation, the doctor asked to insist on medication, even with diarrhea. I did this, and my mother suffered for another week until I decided to stop the medicine myself. She was becoming dehydrated and couldn’t stand to go to the bathroom all the time.

However, the medicine package insert said that the treatment could only be interrupted with the doctor’s agreement.

So I decided to go to an emergency room so that a doctor could assess her and help me make the best decision.

I did this last Sunday. I arrived in the parking lot with my car, disembarked my mother, and waited for the valet.

He wasn’t coming.

I was in front of the valets and the cashier, but everyone ignored me.

I went to them and asked who I should hand over the key to.

They looked at each other, and after a few moments of debate, they discovered that they had handed my car ticket to another customer, who arrived after me.

One of the valets ran into the emergency room to get the ticket. Minutes later, he returned. He did not find the other car’s owner.

I asked what they would do, and the cashier said he would give me a duplicate of the ticket.

“But what if the owner of the other car presents the first copy? Will you give him my car?”

“No, of course! We’re watching!”

I realized how much they were.

I got my car and parked on the street.

These were just a few examples of what happens to me EVERY DAY, IN EVERY AREA. Does this happen to you too? Is this unique to Brazil?