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I had to go to the Emergency Department today1.
While registering, I updated my address and contact information since the last time I was there. ("Have you been to this hospital before?" "Hasn't everyone who lives in this city?") This included updating Next of Kin, to have ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) velithya listed instead of my parents. velithya has a very identifiably-female first name, by the way.
Her: Okay, name?
Me: [Vel'ithya].
Her: Friend or spouse?
Me: ... Friend, but I find it seriously awesome that you asked that question.
Blandly, routinely, the patient-registering person queried whether the woman whose name I'd just given was my friend or my spouse. At the major public hospital of my city. How cool is that?
Of course, I then proceeded to be examined, treated, given a tetanus shot (when they ask you when you last had a tetanus shot, and your answer starts with "Uh..." you are getting a tetanus shot; when that's followed by, "I definitely had one in 1988," you're really truly not getting away without either a tetanus shot or a good reason not to have one), and interviewed by the liaison from the psychiatry department, before being released to go home... with nobody even considering the possibility of asking me for money. Because we have socialised medicine, and socialised medicine is a very good thing.
1: Emotional breakdown, leading to self-harm, which was minor on the grand scale of things but needed a tiny bit of medical attention.
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