My Scam Experience At The Hospital 

 I was having toothache to the point where I could no longer bear it. So I asked my friend to escort me to one of the govt hospitals here in Abuja, this happened yesterday .
Before I continue, lemme make it clear that the last time I went to a hospital was more than 10 years ago (yea, I'm blessed like that ) , so I don't have the exact details of how they operate.
On getting to the hospital, I was asked to get a card, which I did. We then headed to the dental clinic to do the card registration. I was called upon by the dentist and he started asking me questions abt my case. I have to mention that he also asked irrelevant questions like am I married? What is my relationship with my friend I came with? Where I live?, how I came from such a far place to the hospital, which I later realized was just his gimmick to know if he could scam me .

After that, he told me I needed to extract one tooth and fill the other close to it. He then said everything was 7k. He asked me to go pay the money to the hospital cashier but I was surprised wen he said I should only pay 2500 for the extraction first. When I hesitated and wondered why I shouldn't pay all the money at once, he gave a flimsy excuse of how I should pay it step by step incase if he doesn't finish the procedure.
So I was surprised when he extracted the tooth and filled the other tooth in less than an hour, without waiting for me to make the payments in steps like he said. It was when one of the nurses called me inside their office there and asked me to pay the remaining money that I sensed sth was not right. I told them I was coming, went outside and told my friend what happened and he said I should give them the money anyways , that maybe that's their system there and I might end up getting embarrassed if I want to take up the case.
I gave them the money and left the hospital. On getting back home, I couldn't stop wondering if there was sth I could have really done abt it, hence my decision to post it here. I don't feel it's right for these people to collect money from vulnerable patients and still receive their salary at the end of the month.

Has corruption really gotten to this extent where scammers now wear a lab coat?