Here in my Kumbuk Thuduwa, I heard Ranga cough a bad chesty cough, and so I sent him to the nearest qualified medical practitioner to me, about two kilometers from me on the main road, at the Kotalawala junction. She sees patients after 4.30 pm as she is a government doctor and does private practice after hours.
She examined him and prescribed him three different medications including an 8 day course of antibiotics. The antibiotics were from the State Pharmaceutical Corporation. The way medicines are handed out there is no indication what it is, so I don’t know.
Anyway the charge for the consultation and the prescription also dispensed by the doctor was Rs 120/- which is about right for this neighborhood as being between a quarter and a fifth of a daily wage around here.
To extrapolate in the US context, for someone earning $4,000 a month for a 20 day month the daily being $200, then a quarter is $50. I suppose a consultation in the US and medicines may vary from $100 to $150, with insurance paying a portion of this.
The doctor told him not to bathe and I told him to take a few days off as his parents are visiting him and will fuss over him!
