Medical

Here's what I had to go thru to get my medical and visa done here. Went to Rashid Hospital again to get my Health Card done. Here, you get your Health Card before you get your medical done. Anyway, the Health Card Section has two entrances, one for Men and the other for Ladies. However, the door at the Ladies' Section was locked, so I had to proceed thru the "men's" door.


At the Ladies Section, there are about 4 or 5 counters, empty counters, no one there. Just one lady sitting at a row of seats under the air-con unit, busy sms-ing on her phone. When I ask "Health Card?", she approaches me, looks at my papers, then leads me to the Information Counter at the MEN'S Section.


Again, there's no one at this counter, and she just says "You, wait", and then walks back to her row of seats. Finally some guy appears at the counter, looks at my papers, clips and stamps some stuff and asks me to head back to the Ladies Section and wait at Counter #. So back I go to empty Counter #, and the same lady looks at my papers, leaves it at that counter and calls out to somewhere behind the counter for one of her colleagues, "Syarifa! Syarifa!" Then she turns to me and says again "You, wait".

After some time a lady appears at Counter #, takes my papers and money, returns some papers and a receipt, and asks me to proceed to Counter X. The sms-lady now ushers me to an empty Counter X, leaves my papers there, and calls out to the back again, "Mahmood! Mahmood!". Then turns to me again, says, again, "You, wait". After a long while, who I presume to be Mahmood appears at Counter X, takes my papers and gets my Health Card done. Then Mahmood calls out something that sounds like my name and I approach the counter. He says happily, "Oh, Malaysia? Apa khabar?" I say, "Ha... khabar baik. Itu saja u tau cakap, lain tak tau?" From the stupid blank look on his face I didn't need an answer.

With my Health Card, I now go back to Jumeirah "white house" HR, to apply for a medical appointment. It's scheduled for a Wednesday when Ben's off, so he follows me to Al Qouz (where there's more housing for Jumeirah staff). There's a "mobile clinic" at Al Qouz for Jumeirah staff to get their medical done. Here, a whole bunch of new staff wait in a small room, while some guy has 5 stacks of medical forms with staff numbers on them. The numbers are of course by Dubai standards, not in running order. So from morning, he just goes thru these stacks of papers calling out numbers, and if your staff number gets called, you go up, take the paper and the test tube thingie for your blood test. If you're in the F&B or Service unit, he hands you a small container and says, loud enough for the room to hear, "Stool test". If the staff at the table doesn't understand, he says, "Stool test. Ice cream!", and everyone in the room giggles.

Man at table finishes calling out all the numbers and he still doesn't call out Ben's staff number, so we go up and ask him, and he say, "Oh, Wife of such n such a number... no need to queue". He hands me the vial for the blood test, and my papers, and asks me to proceed to get my X-ray done. So we leave the small room and queue outside the X-ray clinic, a makeshift container on wheels. When it's finally my turn, the guy looks at my papers and says, "Oh, housewife. No need x-ray. Go for blood test".

So we go back to the small room, and by now, Ben's pissed and says we don't need to queue because he's of a higher staff grade. So we cut the queue and I go in to get my blood taken. I've never been afraid of needles, and usually just look away when the needle is being inserted, afterwhich I will actually look at the blood being taken from my vein. But this time, I looked, and hey.. no blood. So one would expect the nurse to remove the needle and try the other arm right? But No... with one inch or more of the needle still in my left arm, she moves it to the right, then to the left, up and down, looking for a vein. After a while, I say, 'maybe you should try the other arm". But she persists, digging the needle in my flesh up & down, left & right... So I say again, "MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY THE OTHER ARM" cos by now it was getting really horrifying. So she finally and reluctantly removes the needle and draws blood from my right arm.

Now here's the weird thing about medicals in Dubai. To save time and resources, they do "batch testing". Meaning, samples of blood from 6 people are mixed together and tested for HIV and Hepatitis. So if it comes back positive, all 6 of those people have to go back for individual tests! I finally got my permanent Residence Visa after my medical came back ok, so no need to meet Dracula from Hell again.