Non-Americans, what's it like when you're sick and need to go to the doctor?
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
United Kingdom, Dorset.
My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.
Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.
Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.
Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
East europe:
Just use government level 2fa to sign into a health portal and send a message about your problem. It usually is answered within a few hous and you either get prescription or a checkup in a few days. If a specialist doctor is needed, wait times can be up to a year, unless you go the evil hypercapitalist route and pay them the price of happy meal to get a visit at a private clinic.
All procedures are free or practically free.
ER now costs like a tenner cause idiots would not fucking stop wasting their time with things like "oh I have a tick" and "oh my kid sneezed once" -
Sweden.
A few alternatives:
- I could book an appointment at the local health center. I would probably get a time at the earliest next week, and it would cost me $30. Health center doctors are generally quite overworked, and can sometimes be a bit dismissive of your issues in my experience, but they will help you. If you need specialist care, they will give you a referral, which could take several months depending on the priority of the case and the type of specialist.
- I could use an app to get access to a video call with a doctor, after having described my symptoms in the app. I would get a video call the same day and it would cost me $30. Given the remote nature of this kind of contact, they can be a bit limited in what they can do for you, but will try to help you regardless. If your case requires in-person examination, they will ask you to go to a health center instead. If you need specialist care, they will give you a referral and you'll have to wait the same amount of time as for a referral in the health center scenario.
- I am lucky enough to have a private health insurance plan through my employer. If I have any problems, I'll submit them to this private health insurer, and they put a human on the case and connects me with a specialist right away if the problem warrants one. Typically this happens the same or the next day. This costs me nothing, apart from what I pay in benefit taxes to be on the private health insurance plan.
All in all, things work fairly well in Sweden, but having gotten private health insurance has definitely jaded me a bit on account of how much better the experience is when you have that. If only the public system wasn't systematically underfunded and run by the dumbest politicians on offer in the country, then maybe everyone could have great patient experience.
Does these costs count towards the högkostnadsskydd? (cost ceiling)
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Dude shut up this comment was so unnecessary
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Does these costs count towards the högkostnadsskydd? (cost ceiling)
Yes, but there are two different ones - one for medical appointments and one for medicine.
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United Kingdom, Dorset.
My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.
Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.
Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.
Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)
That sounds kind of scary, did they actually get to the bottom of what happened or was it just "Hey, she can eat toast now, you're free to go!"
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United Kingdom, Dorset.
My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.
Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.
Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.
Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)
This has been pretty much our experience too when our kids have been ill, except they didn't have their own room but a small ward.
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
Honestly depends.
If it's life or death urgent, an ambulance arrives, takes you away and with any luck, fix you right up. Visitors will likely have to pay to park at the hospital, and that will be your biggest expense. When my dad had a cardiac arrest, it was during covid, so the parking was free. The biggest expense was cleaning his blood off the carpets and putting their cat in the cattery for a week.
If it's something non-urgent, and the cause isn't immediately found by a doctor, then you might go on a waiting list and be seen in a few months maybe. And even then it might not get sorted. It's not like House.
The most annoying bit is the 8am phone roulette to try and get an appointment.
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That sounds kind of scary, did they actually get to the bottom of what happened or was it just "Hey, she can eat toast now, you're free to go!"
Yes it was gastroenteritis, luckily she bounced back quite quickly!
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This has been pretty much our experience too when our kids have been ill, except they didn't have their own room but a small ward.
Yes I think we got lucky with the room, perhaps it was just a quiet period
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Honestly depends.
If it's life or death urgent, an ambulance arrives, takes you away and with any luck, fix you right up. Visitors will likely have to pay to park at the hospital, and that will be your biggest expense. When my dad had a cardiac arrest, it was during covid, so the parking was free. The biggest expense was cleaning his blood off the carpets and putting their cat in the cattery for a week.
If it's something non-urgent, and the cause isn't immediately found by a doctor, then you might go on a waiting list and be seen in a few months maybe. And even then it might not get sorted. It's not like House.
The most annoying bit is the 8am phone roulette to try and get an appointment.
If he had a bat would you put it in a battery?
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We do also get money taken directly out of our pay check for health insurance. So it isn't just the 5 euro fee. But I think it manages to be considerably less, since everyone is required to have insurance. I think that brings down the cost for everyone.
This is what absolutely kills me about the people around me in this country....
The owner of a company has an idea of your total value, your "compensation." They factor in the cost of healthcare in that calculation, so we're still paying for the insurance and yet so many people see it as "their company pays for it, if we had universal healthcare then I would have to pay a tax!" ... mother fucker you already pay the "tax" for a much worse, more expensive system where people still aren't covered...
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United Kingdom, Dorset.
My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.
Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.
Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.
Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)
Overnight stay at a hospital here in the US is at least $3,000 / £2.196 / €2.552
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
wrote last edited by [email protected]Portugal
If it doesn't require immediate attention I call my health center. I can get an appointment with my family pshysician in a few days or, if it's more urgent, some other doctor will see me the same day but I'll have to wait there until one is free (can go anywhere between 15mn and 2 hours). I'm lucky though, some health centers suck really bad. The ones in big cities are generally better.
If it's more urgent I call the national health line and they'll A: tell me how to treat it myself B: set up an appointment in my health center (or another if mine is not available)
send me straight to the closest emergency room.Wait times in the emergency room depend on the gravity and the hospital. My hospital sucks. Low priority you'll spend there the whole day, easy. 10+ hours. Medium priority you'll wait 4 or 5 hours. High priority about an hour, maybe two. Very high priority (head falling off) you go right in. In good hospitals those times are much lower. In the major city I used to live I never waited more than 2 hours for any priority. I also had surgery there and it was great.
Never paid a cent, I think it goes without saying.
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
Canada. It's generally easy and free (no direct cost to me). I try to avoid having to go to my doctor whenever possible and I live with a nurse (and my doc knows that). Usually when I send him a message, either by email or by calling, he'll have a follow up question or two (sometimes none) then decide a course of action and move right to implementation. Sometimes that's sending a script to my local pharmacy, sometimes that's a referral to a specialist. Who knows? I haven't seen the guy in years. But if he made the request for me to go in, I would without hesitation.
I know my experience isn't the same as others, since my doctor and my spouse have actually worked together; but still. It's all free and there's usually minimal waiting.
The only significant delays I've heard of in Canadian healthcare relate to major procedures when the issue is non-critical. Like getting an MRI as a precaution, to make sure things aren't messed up or something (IDK what MRIs are used to diagnose, I am not a doctor).
Everything is triaged, so if you're not actively dying from a thing, and you need a big piece of equipment to scan you to figure something out, you're going to be waiting a while.
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
The Netherlands
I call my doctor, make an appointment the same day, go there, tell my story, get referred to a specialist or get meds or whatever, all covered by insurance.
Specialist: sometimes appointment within a week or 2, sometimes it takes a month. It's covered by insurance, but there's an own risk budget each year of 380 euros. So all costs up to that budget are paid by yourself, the rest is covered. But since I'm getting mental health care, I pay 380 each januari and the rest for the entire year is all covered. This year I've had a broken collarbone repaired with a metal plate with all the photos before and after, I had 2 bladder infections which needed antibiotics and I had food poisoning on holiday and intestand infection, which was all covered at home and abroad.
Insurance
I pay 180 a month. It includes dental and some extras like 9 physical therapist appointments.
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Yes it was gastroenteritis, luckily she bounced back quite quickly!
Wow! I had no idea that was even possible for a 3 year old! Glad she's OK!
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UK here. This is all "free" (i.e. paid for by a significant portion of every paycheck I ever earn via tax).
I phone my GP. They say you have I call at 0830 to get an appointment. Call back tomorrow. I ask for an advance appointment and they say they have nothing for 6+ weeks. So I call back the next day and the line is constantly busy. I get through at 0837 after mashing redial constantly. I'm told the appointments are all gone and I should call back tomorrow again. They suggest "if it's urgent then go to the A&E department"....which is clearly inappropriate for my problem. So I call back the next day. The next day I happen to get through at 0833 and they take my details. I'm told the doctor will call me back at some point later that day. Spend the day watching the phone, but can't answer it because I'm work. Duck out of something really important at work to take the call, I'm told to come to the GP later in the day. Later in the day I have work stuff I can't just leave immediately, so I ask for an appointment the next day. Get told to phone back at 0830 the next day to make an appointment.
I've figured out a way to short circuit the system. There's a national urgent medical line (111) and I have to answer the operator's questions for 20 min (am I bleeding profusely? Am I unable to breathe? Am I going to die imminently?). Finally, they're able to allocate an appointment for my own GP at a sensible time the next day.....apparently thesr guys have access to appointments with my GP which the fucking GP won't give me. Great! I go to the GP to be seen by a FY2 doctor (i.e. 15 months posts undergraduate qualification), this guy admits that he doesn't know what he's doing, that he'll speak to the GP later and phone me back with the outcome later that day. He phones me back later that day saying they don't know what to do so they're going to refer me to a hospital specialist, the hospital appointment should be sent to me in 10 months or so.
The few times I have had to go to the A&E department with my kid, I've taken chargers, entertainment devices, extra coat for my kid to use as a blanket, food (2 full packed meals), water, video game console.......I'm expecting to be there for about 6 hours if things move really quickly.
The state of national healthcare in this country. Thank you Conservatives, for 13 years of record low investment.
wrote last edited by [email protected]111 isn't an urgent line (if it's genuinely an emergency go to A&E or call 999) and from personal experience it takes hours for them to get back to you, at which point you've either already told them your symptoms have got worse, still had no call back and gone to A&E or they get back to you eventually and tell you that you might be fine, but should go to the hospital anyway and sit in a queue for 6 hours so they can make sure it's not actually something serious. NHS 111 is just as useless as the NHS Direct it replaced
For GP appointments that are released on the day, in the morning, you can avoid waiting in a long call queue to the GP by booking the appointment through the NHS app if your GP supports it.
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
UK. Phone local GP, no appointments available for ~3 weeks, maybe get a call back appointment in 2 weeks if I'm lucky. Alternative is to phone every morning between 0830-0900 and either not get through or be told there are still no appointments available.
I have found walk in pharmacists to be well educated (better than many GPs?!) and available without appointment so they're usually my first port of call.
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
wrote last edited by [email protected]Brazil, urban area, with a health plan (private healthcare)
I go to the doctor, grab a little paper with a number on it, wait for the number to be displayed on the monitor, go to the reception desk, give them my health plan card and my ID, they give those back to me, I sit back down and wait for the same number to be displayed on a different monitor. Once it's displayed, I go to the room number shown on the monitor and from there, I discuss what problem I have with an adequate specialist.
For an unplanned visit, the wait time is usually 5–30 minutes, depending on the hour and season (there are a lot of tourists during summer, meaning longer wait times and more people at the hospital).
I don't know about pricing (my parents pay for it), but it's probably not too expensive since we've never had financial problems due to health issues (as far as I'm aware).
I've never not went to the doctor for financial reasons, only for health concerns (worrying about getting sick with something else, specially if the waiting room is full or almost full). Sometimes prescribed medicine can be pretty expensive.
