Monday 8 June 2009

Vacation with NFZ

Today It’s my turn to post some new exiting stuff on our blog. Perhaps It’s not very entertaining but I hope You’ll forgive me. ;) I decided to share my shocking experience from 3 weeks ago with You. I am aware that the Polish health service is not a favorite subject for almost all of us, but I think that there is a good reason for that. And here it is:

I spent 5 days in the/a hospital on Banacha street, where I had my septum operated. Septum is a part of the nose which separates two holes in the nose and its being operated when you have problems with breathing. I discovered that the hospital is a magic place, where absurd meets horror. It’s a place where 5 hour waiting time for registration isn’t anything abnormal. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised to discover that there is no place to wash, because there is no hot water on the 7th floor and showers are full of broken wheelchairs. Would You agree that guilt for such situation lays on poor management and many years of underinvestment? But I guarantee that there is money in the system. I spent 2 totally unnecessary days waiting for examinations, which finally took 15 minutes. Money spent on me doing absolutely nothing could have been invested better. I have heard rumors that NFZ gives hospital more money, when patient’s are kept longer. There are things though which have little in common with money and more to do with people. Things like food. It is possible to prepare something eatable with the same ingredients.

The worst part of my hospital complain is the history of my roommate, who almost died there. He thought he was perfectly healthy when he arrived. Test confirmed that he has Hepatitis, and a heart problem. Another thing was total lack of professionalism of one nurse, who told him about his illness in such a rude and impolite way, that he panicked. He cried whole night. Day after that he had his operation planned and he was so stressed, that he almost died there. Of course no operation was performed and doctors had to rescue him. I think that problem of our health service is far more complicated and difficult than funding problems. What’s Your opinion? What are Your experiences with our health service? 

9 comments:

  1. Sorry, only private health care experience here, and only good ones, I don't have a health for public health service ;D
    I need hospitalization so rarely so when needed, I can afford private care

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  2. Almost the same situation here... just like Luke said.

    But... few months ago my grandmother needed an ambulance. She felt in her house. We were waiting over an hour and there was no ambulance... we called them again and once again we were told to wait... 5 minutes away from my grandparents house there is a ambulance stopping-place. So we went there tired of waiting... gues what? there were 3 ambulances there. But it's not a happy ending... not yet. You know what they told us? They told us that they couldn't help us because they had to wait for the call from the dispatcher. 3 ambulances just standing 5 minutes away and we were waiting for more then 2 hours for "our" ambulance from somewhere else. Is that crazy or what?

    Another thing is that there were 3 team members and they needed me as 4th to help with the stretcher on the stairs. It wasn't a problem for me but they should be prepared that there is no one to help them...

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  3. I hate our health care.. so much that I stopped of using it. :D If I am sick, I just waiting what will happend next.. If nothing helpping I just looking for somebody who has somebody, who know some doctor.. If it will not work some time, it will be indicating that I lose my leg or sth.. :D

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  4. Yes, I agree that situation of our health service is dramatic. The worst is that we cannot refuse from it. We have to pay for nothing. The private medical service in Poland has really a good quality and every year people refuse from the public service and start using private service. I think that we should have option to refuse paying taxes for public health system if they don’t use it.

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  5. I hate hospitals ! There was a time i spend there a very very much time, and I have to say that all depends on service and people work there. The best way is not to get sick :) and omit hospitals with big angle. But if there is no other way and you must stay in hospital it is good idea to see good thinks of this place, because people who are laying all day and have bad thoughts do not heal up as fast as people who have positive thinking.
    Choosing between public NFZ service and private for example medicover of course I would choose the second one if somebody have ever use medicover service or other private clinic service knows why... ;)

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  6. I never had to use medical care service in Warsaw. But i have heard many bad opinions about hospitals there. In my opinion it all depends on people working there. And of course it also depends on financial state of that certain hospital.
    From what i know NFZ gives silly low amounts per patient. Good thing is that it all heads to privatization so there is a chance that it will be better in future.

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  7. My last time in a hospital was fifteen years ago! Since then I try to look out and not hurt myself in any way. I am very lucky in this respect because nothing serious has happened to me during the last fifteen years. My hospital experience is limited to TV series like "Scrubs" or "Gray's anatomy".

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  8. I never was in the hospital and I don't want to :] I stay away of polish hospitals... when I feel bad I just stay at home, take some pills and wait what happen next :]

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  9. I'm also using only private health care. I'm sick of waiting few months for getting to specialists and for asking doctors for physical exams which they don't want to give. In private clinics everything is right-on-time and everybody is polite.

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