Adventures in Healthcare, part 1 Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 6, 2008 in Culture, Vocabulary
A few years ago my friend discovered a black spot on her skin. She went to the clinic (vårdcentralen) and showed it to the doctor there. The doctor told her to wait and see if it would disappear on its own. A couple of weeks later, the spot was still there and she asked me to go to the clinic with her and yell at the doc a little. I went and I yelled. My friend got a referral (en remiss) to a specialist at the hospital (sjukhuset). The hospital sent her a letter saying that the earliest available appointment they had was about 8 months away.
We returned to vårdcentralen to yell at the doc some more. Finally, she said, “a new private dermatology practice just opened, why don’t you go there?” I wanted to know why she didn’t tell us that a few weeks ago during the first visit. “You didn’t ask,” she answered.
To make a long story short – my friend went to the private clinic, had a biopsy, turned out the spot was malignant, was admitted to the hospital and had it removed. She’s been cancer free ever since. I shudder at the thought of what might have happened if she had waited the initial 8 months for her appointment at the hospital skin clinic.
So, when last week I noticed something weird on my skin, I didn’t even bother with vårdcentralen, I called straight to the private practice and got my appointment immediately.
Wow! How the place has grown since the last time I was there. Now they’re giving the public hospital some serious competition.
Apart from a dermatologist (en dermatolog, hudläkare), they also have a regular surgeon (en allmänkirurg), an orthopedist (en ortoped), plastic/cosmetic surgeons (plastikkirurger), their own anesthesiologists (narkosläkare) and a whole slew of nurses (sköterskor). It’s a tiny private hospital they’ve got over there.
Now, in addition to a strictly private practice (like cosmetic surgery), they also accept regular and private insurance and referrals from doctors at vårdcentraler. This is what I call progress!
To provide a point of reference, my dearly beloved also had to see a doctor today. He got a referral for gastroscopy (gastroskopi), the poor thing… And the wait time at the hospital? 6 weeks… Let’s hope it’s nothing serious and he can survive. Technically, we have a 30 day guarantee to see a specialist, but in reality (and depending on what king of doctor you need), it may not happen.
The long waiting times to see specialist doctors are a very common problem in Sweden. In bigger cities, where there are more private clinics, the patients at least have options. In smaller towns, it may mean the difference between life and death. You think I’m exaggerating? Not so. Even the government decided it was time to finally do something about it. Here is what The Local wrote about it (in English) back in September, and here is a more recent article (in Swedish) from a local newspaper in Östersund.
And as for me, I’ll have my results next week. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious.
image: Landstinget i Östergötland
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Comments:
Mo:
I wish you the best…
Curre:
Anna,
You´re just soooo right. Theré´s a political war going on where the left wing are trying to concentrate the medical treatment resources to bigger cities, leaving people in countryside towns to ambulance care or commuting to the regional hospital. It´s all about economy & jobs. But the public vårdcentral where I live was recently privatized by a quite famous doctor who refused to move, and (ta-da!) all of a sudden they could afford to employ 4 nursery hostesses in addition to their medical staff.
That´s customer service you never meet in hospitals run by Landstinget.
Cheers!
timan:
An advanced country with a tiny population, supposed to be there , an easy access.Do’nt worry gonna be fine.everyone(like u) has this power of skilful spontaneity ‘ll survive..A healthy fat man 86Kl, one day he decided to checkup, the Doc told him you have 100 kinds of illness ,above all, u could’nt make it for the rest of the year, sorry!so he quitted all pills ,he says: iam here still , one good thing that Doc gave me is that i lost 30kl in one week !
Arsh Jami:
Hej Anna! Best wishes and hope that it is nothing serious . One question..I assume that health care at vårdcentralen is free for all Swedish citizens and legal residents. How much out of pocket one has to pay if you go to a private clinic?
Sincerely,
Arsh
Anna:
Thank you guys!
I think everything will be OK, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, if you know what I mean.
Curre,
I am soooooo fed up with our public vårdcentral here that it’s one of the main reasons why we want to move. Now I know that it’s essential to research health care options BEFORE making any plans to move. And I hear that quite a few people do just that, especially if they have kids with special needs or health issues.
Arsh,
It’s not free. You pay 100SEK each time you see a doc at vårdcentralen, but up to 300SEK for a specialist (I have no clue how this is calculated, maybe it depends on what kind of specialist you need to see) and when you reach a certain amount of money spent on doctors’ visits in one year, you get a free pass for your next consultation. But I don’t go to the doctor enough to qualify for that. In fact, I avoid going whenever possible.
Anna:
Oh, and private clinics, it depends on whether or not such a clinic accepts public insurance – some of those private doctors do. When I went to the skin doctor, I had to pay out of pocket for everything, and it came out to 800SEK and change – still a bargain by American standards, considering the tests they need to do. I don’t have private insurance (you can have it in addition to the normal public coverage) so it was just an expense I had to deal with.
Tapani:
That is beyond horrible. I am writing a blog about how I walked around two years with neck injury before I got it examined. I was seriously ill for a long time without access to medical care, and I later thought that I am still one of the lucky ones: I am alive to tell the story.
It gets uglier still, as we turn to our landsting and try to find someon who is accountable for the negligence. They will shamelessly lie on our face!
I cannot but wonder how many people must have died because of this, just as your friend nearly did.
Thank you for writing this. We must make sure that every one of these incidents is spoken of, that is the only way we can hope it will be better in the future.
I have written my story at http://sllblog.wordpress.com
Anna:
Tapani,
I am so sorry to hear about your experiences. Ours were not quite as bad, I must admit.
Though my dearly beloved is STILL waiting for his gastroscopy – so much for the 30 day guarantee… In the meantime, he can’t eat much and is losing weight.
I’ve started to investigate where we can have it done privately in Stockholm. I don’t even mind paying more and flying there if it means we can have it done rather soon.
Tapani:
Many people are telling me that City Akuten in Stockholm is very good and accessible. I haven’t tried it myself, but might be something to check out. As for me, I’ve decided to fly to Helsinki next time I need to see a doc.