It is common to hear complaints about public health, which is due to waiting lists, which is due to a lack of specialists. However, Spanish healthcare professionals try to remember the importance National Health System and they regret that many patients do not appreciate it enough, especially if we compare it to others like the American one.
For this reason, Elena Casado, an anesthesiologist, decided to share a video posted by a content creator who recounts your emergency room visit in the United States. “I’ll tell you the story of how I almost had to sell my kidney to pay for the doctor here,” the young woman begins explaining, assuring that “two months ago she got sick with tonsillitis and never fully recovered without taking antibiotics.”
“After three hours of waiting in the emergency room, they call me,” he says in his videos, stating that when he explained what was happening to him, “The first thing they did was a blood analysis”. “You go to Spain with these symptoms and they don’t do a blood test, they look at your throat and see if you have angina or not,” he says. After the examination, as she says, “they confirm that the blood test is fine” and she again explains the reason why she decided to go to the emergency room.
It goes in two parts. See to the end.
And then you complain about public healthcare and that it would be better and faster for you privately. pic.twitter.com/5k9tGryLdh
— Dr. Elena Casado Pineda (@Medicilio) October 15, 2022
“I wait again for two hours in the waiting room and then the nurse comes,” says the young woman and admits that “after not noticing any inflammation”, he finally takes the patient to the doctor. “He came to the emergency room at seven in the afternoon, and it was already almost twelve in the evening,” he adds, pointing out that when “they finally prescribe him an antibiotic” the surprise comes when they tell him that “you have to apply and, in addition, leave your insurance with them”.
Since he had no insurance, the doctor gave him a bill, indicating that he had to take care of it. “The bill was $7,000 -6,974 euros-“says the young woman. That is, about 1400 dollars – 1394 euros – an hour in the hospital.
Defense of Spanish public health: “Then complain”
A story that did not leave anyone on social networks, especially health workers, indifferent. “Then you complain about public health and that it would be better and faster for you privately“, criticized Casado in this regard. However, there are doctors who point out that although “Private healthcare is a mess, this does not mean that public healthcare is excellent”. “Public health is getting worse and worse, and patients are often homeless,” they added.
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