The Hospital (A parable)

Once upon a time, a group of doctors moved into a new town. They had heard that people were getting sick and no-one would help them get better. ‘This will never do!’ they said, and off they went.

When they got to the town, they realised how big a job they had. There were sick people everywhere-in the streets, in the parks, in the shops, in homes. Concerned, they went to the local hospital, but the doctors there didn’t seem the slightest bit worried about the
situation. ‘No,’ said the Chief Administrator. ‘There aren’t as many sick people in this town as you might think. And anyone who does get
sick wants to be that way.’

Unperturbed, the young group of doctors went out into the street looking for sick people to heal.

hossie At first, people weren’t very happy. ‘If we want to get better,’ they’d say, ‘we’ll come and see you.’ Others would say, ‘I already have my own doctor, thank you very much. I have a check-up every month and everything seems to be okay.’ Yet others would say, ‘I’m not sick, and I would appreciate it if you stopped talking like that around my children!’

Yet the group of doctors worked diligently, and many people were healed. Some of the people who got healed wanted to help other people
who were sick. So they were trained in different jobs. Some became health educators, teaching people how to stay healthy. Some became
nurses. And some even dreamed of becoming doctors and enrolled in the big university in the city.

However, there was a problem. The doctors could only do so much working in people’s homes and in the streets. The health educators
needed a room to put their flip-charts. The doctors and nurses needed private rooms where they could do their consultations. And everyone
agreed they needed a tea room where they could eat their lunch.

After much discussion they realised that what they really needed was a clinic. So they started a huge fund-raising campaign so they could
build one. It wasn’t hard to do-all the people they’d healed were willing to help. A big hospital in another town sent them some money,
and before they knew it, they had a lovely clinic with a big waiting room, a tea room for the staff, and enough stethoscopes for everyone.

The town thought this was great! People came to the clinic from miles around and were healed. They went and got their sick friends who were also healed. Many of those people wanted to learn to look after people, and before long, the clinic was full of people wanting to help
others get better. In fact, the clinic was so full of people there wasn’t enough room for sick people to get in the door!

The doctors had a meeting to discuss the problem. One doctor thought they should open another clinic. Another thought they should close
their books and send people to the old hospital up the road. ‘No,’ said one doctor. ‘Let’s open our own hospital!’

Nobody had thought of that! But they thought through the possibilities. They could do operations! They could open wards for
people who needed to stay a few days! Instead of sending trainee doctors to the city they could train them locally! The health
educators could make their own flip-charts instead of buying everyone else’s!

So once again they started to raise money. Some of the ladies set up a stall and sold doylies and knitted animals. They sold space to
florists and newsagents who wanted to set up shop in the hospital. And instead of buying new sphygmomanometers, they got them donated by sponsors. They had a big raffle, and they had benefit concerts, and before long they had enough money to build the hospital.

The new hospital was a sight to behold. It had a massive foyer with coffee shops and newsagents and florists and restaurants. They had a
huge car park and a bus stop out the front. The operating theatre had lots of machines that went ‘ping!’ The wards were the the cleanest and
shiniest and fanciest any of the doctors could remember seeing.

Most importantly there was a huge Emergency room. It had several ambulances that would rush out at a moment’s notice to bring sick
people back to the hospital. All the best doctors and nurses were stationed in there.

Every floor had a tea room for the staff. The doctors elected the doctor who had had the idea of building the hospital to be the Chief
Administrator. The other doctors all became heads of departments. They made the nurses into matrons and sisters and ward managers. The health educators were given fancy laptop computers and projectors so they didn’t need to use flip-charts anymore.

Everyone got to work. The Chief Administrator held staff meetings every week in the fancy tea room on the top floor. The heads of
department had staff meetings every day to discuss budgets and new ways of doing surgery. The health educators would talk about the new
ways people were getting sick and write grant proposals so the government could fund programs to research ways to help the sickest
people in the community. The nurses would do training courses every week, learning new techniques in infection control and ward organisation.

News of this new hospital went for miles. People would come and take tours to see how it was run. They would marvel at the big tea rooms
and the gymnasium on the second floor. They were full of wonderful phrases like, ‘industry best practice’ and ‘a paradigm example of
mission focussed development, leveraging existing synergies to maximise staff potential thus setting new benchmarks and producing
positive staff/client interactions leading to the achievement of all stipulated outcomes.’

The wards were full of patients. Many of them weren’t even sick-they were just so worried about their health they would come in, just in
case. Some had been near sick people outside the hospital and were worried they might have caught their diseases, so they checked in.
After all, they were told, if your life’s at risk you won’t take chances. Many people were so worried about getting sick they stayed in
the hospital. Some were able to get permanent beds. Others got jobs in the hospital so they never even had to go outside. They could help
sick people by staying right where they were.

After a while the big new hospital started to feel a bit small. They had to expand. The Board of Directors held a meeting to discuss the
options. Someone suggested they open a new hospital. Someone else suggested they get rid of all the healthy patients.

After some discussion they decided that the Emergency room was taking up far too much room and money. So the Board of Directors decided to open a small Emergency room in one of the sicker neighbourhoods in the town. If people got sick they could go there. Once they were a bit
better they might be able to find a place in the hospital. That way no-one would have to worry about sick people coming into the hospital,
and the space saved would make a lovely play area for the children who had been born in the hospital. Whilst doctors might risk being around
sick people, it seemed reckless to expose children to the dangers outside.

The new Emergency room was very popular amongst the people of that neighbourhood, but after a few months the Chief Administrator
discovered that one of the doctors assigned to the Emergency room had sent a newly healed patient to another hospital. That wouldn’t do-that other hospital had female doctors and he wasn’t even sure the health educators were properly qualified! So he immediately shut down the Emergency room, saying that it was better for people to stay sick than receive bad medical advice.

Besides, they didn’t need an Emergency room anyway. After all, keeping people healthy was just as important as getting healthy in the first
place. Sick people could still come to the front door. And everyone agreed that if people were still getting sick it was all their own
fault. So they closed the Emergency room.

One day, the Chief Administrator got a visit from a group of young doctors from another town. They claimed that people in the town were
getting sick, and that they’d like to help out. ‘No,’ said the Chief Administrator. ‘There aren’t as many sick people in this town as you
might think. Anyone who does get sick wants to be that way.’

I think you know the rest of the story.

cameron

Writer: Cameron Horsburgh. Along with his wife Trudy, Cameron is the Corps Officer at the Colac Corps of the Australian Southern Territory. They have two daughters, Shekinah (12) and Charis (9). They all look forward to the day when the girls’ schools have enough money to buy all the supplies they needs, but the Navy needs to sell raffle tickets to buy ships.

blog: http://spiritcry.wordpress.com