The Hospital

There once was a hospital that had 10 patients and one doctor. These patients had been cured of a horrible, terminal disease. They had walked into the Hospitals little ER and collapsed but slowly, over time, with good care and good medicine they had made a full recovery. They grew stronger and got well but they loved the hospital and the other patients were like family to them and so they said, “let’s stay here and run the hospital together.”

And so they did. They did rounds together, took their medicine together, and went to see the doctor together. They chipped in to buy some new equipment for the hospital and to fix up the grounds. Over time they came to believe that they were the best little hospital around.

Until one day the old doctor retired and the new doctor who replaced him said: “My dear patients, you who are healthy and strong, we have a problem. The sign out front says ‘hospital’ yet there are no sick people here. I propose we begin to treat the sick.” All the patients said “here, here” and clapped their hands and they told the stories of how they had been treated when they were sick and of the old doctor who helped them and of the medicine that had made them well.

It was decided that the first step was to re-open the ER as it had been closed due to lack of use and so a group of patients was designated to run it. They dusted the equipment and cleaned the floors and turned on the lights and waited but no one came. And so they thought, maybe we need paint the walls a brighter colour or purchase some new equipment but then they remembered that this was the very ER they had wandered into, the one where they had been brought back to health, and so they left it as it was because they did not know how the new paint or more modern equipment would work but they new that the ER had been very effective for them just like this.

Eventually the patients decided that the problem must be the doctor. Perhaps he did not have a good reputation among the sick, perhaps he only cared about the sick and not the patients, whatever the reason he was deemed and problem and so he was asked to leave and a new doctor was brought in.

They liked this new doctor because he was very focused on helping the sick and yet he seemed to truly care for the patients. One day the doctor said “My dear patients, you who are healthy and strong, we have a problem. The sign out front says ‘hospital’ yet there are no sick people here. I propose we begin to treat the sick.” All the patients said “here, here” and clapped their hands and they told the stories of how they had been treated when they were sick and of the old doctor who helped them and of the medicine that had made them well.

And so the doctor said “if we are to care for the sick we will need new equipment” but the patients said “But this equipment is not broken and it worked just fine on us, and besides, we don’t have the money.”

And the doctor said “we only have ten beds, we will either need to buy more or some of you who have become healthy will have to give up yours” but the patients said “ but we love these beds, and we bought these beds, and besides, why be a patient if you don’t have your own bed. And if we add more beds some of us may end up sharing a room with sick people and we may not be in the same room as our dear friends any longer and besides, we don’t have the money.”

And the doctor said “we could serve the sick better with an additional doctor, perhaps a pediatrician to care for the young” but the patients said “if we have a pediatrician we may have kids all over the hospital they may make messes and touch things they are not supposed to, and interrupt our sleep, and besides, we don’t have the money.”

And so nothing changed until one day, a very ill man came stumbling in to the old ER. As the doctor prepared the medicine the sick man confessed, “I have crippling fear of needles.” That’s ok” The doctor assured him “you can take the medicine by pill” but as the doctor prepared the dose the patients called him aside and said “you can’t give him a pill, he must receive his medicine by injection.” “But” the doctor said “pill or needle, it doesn’t really matter, so long as he receives the medicine.” But the patients were adamant and the sick man was sent away untreated.

Many years passed yet another new doctor gathered the patients together and said “My dear patients, you who are healthy and strong, we have a problem. We are a hospital and yet it has been years since we last treated anyone who was sick. We must take steps to remedy this immediately.” All the patients said “here, here” and clapped their hands and they told the stories of how they had been treated when they were sick and of the old doctor who helped them and of the medicine that had made them well.

Then one patient said “but we are now old, to old to help the sick ourselves but I know of a hospital in a far away country where they treat many sick. The sick there are more sick that the sick here and if they die they will be even more dead than the dead here and when they give the medicine they do it with pills because people there don’t like needles. I propose we send them our money and supplies and let them treat the sick. We will wish them well and put pictures of their doctors up on our walls so it will feel like we are treating the sick”

And so it went for quite some time. They told the stories of how they got well, and spent many hours together in the cafeteria, and when one had a rough day the others were all there to cheer him up. Doctors came and doctors went but the patients remained the same and although the hospital was very dated they decided not to fix it up to much because they had grown used to it that way and besides, they didn’t have the money. Slowly they closed the ER and the maternity ward and although there were still patients and doctors no sick people were ever treated.

And then one day the government inspector came. He met with the patients and the doctor. He looked at the records and reviewed the schedules. And after a thorough examination he gave his assessment that this was a fine nursing home indeed.

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