What do we fear most on weekends? We fear prisoners getting sick. Not only do prison guards and officials fear it, but prisoners fear it too, because there are no medical personnel at the prison on weekends. At least on non-holiday evenings, there are personnel from the Health and Hygiene section on duty, professional medical staff who can provide initial treatment and determine whether or not it is necessary to send the inmate for further treatment outside the prison.
Ordinary people who feel physical discomfort can always go to the hospital or to the emergency room, but for prisoners this is not the case, even though they are covered by the national health insurance program now. There are still no medical staff on duty on holidays, so if someone is really sick, the staff and the inmates are on their own. The inmate can only can lie on the bed under "observation" at the central station, first to relieve the pressure on our ward colleagues, and second to facilitate immediate evacuation if their condition worsens.
If any prisoner wants to go outside and go to the hospital ER, he or she must meet certain criteria relating to measurements such as blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature. But what is the most important criteria? Adequate manpower! If there aren’t any prison staff make a determination, outside medical treatment is like a dream. Instead, they can only remain under observation by those of us who aren’t health care professionals until their health conditions get better and they can go back to the cell room. So in private we call this kind of "observation" ”Feeding Mosquitoes” in the summer, and “Feeling the Wind Blow" in the winner. That’s the deterrent effect for some inmates who are especially fond of malingering. The temperature often reaches over 40 °C in the ward in the summer! Go out cell room and “Feeding Mosquitoes” one or two hours may magically get better for some, but when the cold winter comes, “Wind Blowing” may cause stroke or heart attack.
Whenever an inmate tells me that he feels unwell, I think, "Even if he’s pretending, I also treat it as if it’s the truth." After all, it’s a human life we’re dealing with, so we can’t take chances.
This brings to mind a winter ten years ago in Taitung. An inmate hunched over and sweating heavily told me:
"I ache… a lot of blood in my urine …I afraid it’s another kidney stone."
"I'll report to Central Station."
The director arrived after ten minutes, first harshly scolding the inmate and telling him not make noise in the middle of the night, and then reproving me for believing what the inmate said. Finally he issued a directive:
"Give him a tablet of stomach medicine!"
非假日晚上至少還有衛生科同仁值班，收容人有狀況還有專業的醫療人員可以先做處置和判斷要不要外醫。
身體不舒服可以隨時去醫院就去醫院，想掛急診就掛急診，在監所可不是這樣，即便是收容人納入健保後的現在，假日照樣沒有醫療人員值班，我們和犯人只能自求多福，要是真有人身體不適，只能開出來躺在中央台的病床上「觀察」，一來減輕舍房同仁值勤的壓力，二來方便狀況惡化時可以立即後送。
要外醫得要血壓、脈搏、體溫這些數據達標，還要考量有沒有人力可以戒護，要不然想外醫可就難了，也只能由我們這些沒有醫療專業的戒護人員一直「觀察」下去，直到數據好轉送回牢房，於是我們夏季私下稱這種「觀察」為「飼蠓（餵蚊子）」，冬天則稱之為「吹風」」，這對某些特別喜歡裝病的收容人的確有嚇阻力；或許是夏天牢房裡溫度常過達40°C左右吧！出來飼蠓一兩個小時有些人的確實會神奇地好轉，但冬天寒流來時，出來吹風爆血管的風險可就大多了。
只要跟我說身體不適的收容人，對我來說「即使是裝的也是真的」，畢竟是人命，不能有閃失。
寫到這裡我想起十多年前在台東的某個冬夜，一位收容人弓著身子扶著腰，大汗淋漓地告訴我：
「尿了好多血⋯這裡好痛⋯好像結石又發作了⋯」
「我馬上報告中央台。」
十多分後主任駕到，先是臭罵犯人半夜不要吵，再是數落我一頓太信犯人講的話，最後他下達指令：
「文蔚，給他一顆胃藥！」
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