Swedish social model...
By glazou on Wednesday 1 June 2005, 14:23 - General - Permalink
...died long ago. The proof is on the home page of Svenska Dagbladet today:
The guy was diagnosed with a prostate cancer a year ago, and had to wait months and months before the hospital could accept him for surgery. To finally discover his cancer spread too much in the meantime to be operated. Sincere congratulations to the swedish hospital system, it killed that man. A few years ago, my mother-in-law had to wait months to be operated of her hand, and that resulted in a partial recovery only. I went myself to the hospital in Danderyd some years ago with a dislocated shoulder; the emergency team made me wait 3 hours, did not touch my shoulder, did not use x-rays, and only gave me a small envelop with three pills of paracetamol before sending me back home.
Note to french readers : Douste-Blabla et ses prédécesseurs nous préparent la même chose, avec un axe fort sur l'équilibre des comptes voire la rentabilité. Mais Sven Algotsson s'en tape bien de tout cela, le système l'a tué.
Comments
My brother use to live in StockHölm and told me about that kind of problem... He also had something wrong on his thumb and finally came back to Paris to see medical specialist because the "generalist" want him to wait before going to a specialist. For me, Sweden is a social model. But when i ask people what they think, they answer me that the system is currently implosing.
Daniel, do you speak Swedish? Is your wife/girlfriend Swedish?
David: yes I do speak swedish, and my wife is swedish. To be more precise about the guy, he contacted Karolinska for the first time a year ago, had to wait 5 months for the diagnosis, waited anoher 4 months to be tested, and discovered it was too late. He is _still_ waiting!
My brother told me he had to wait 9 months to the same hospital !
Here in France, they (ie, Douste-Blabla, our Health Minister) want us to choose a "reference physician" before July.
I just thought the other day that HMO in the USA also have "reference physicians" ... I don't want to judge before acts, but this is strange ...
Si Douste-Blazy pouvait passer plus de temps au ministère qu'à flirter avec Bernadette C. , il nous sortirait peut-être moins de conneries
fr.news.yahoo.com/050524/...
Yes, choose Dr Philipe Douste-Blazy as referent physician, you can't get a better one !
Ministère des Solidarités, de la Santé, de la Famille
14, avenue Duquesne
75007 PARIS
But you're born in France right? (French parents?)
The referent exists as well in Denmark. I don't see that as a practical problem as long as the referent does its job: make sure the client is healed efficiently. Of course, when it's changed to "make sure the client is healed for cheap", it's a different story.
Although when being in Sweden I was lucky enough not to need going to an hospital, I had to use the NHS system in the UK, and it sucks the same. My daughter had pneumonia (because the generalist insisted for two weeks and three sessions that the answer was paracetamol and rest) and we ended in the emergencies section of the hospital. There we waited for 8 hours to see if they would admit her or not (with more paracetamol being diagnosed). In the end they gave us some antibiotics and went home, only because I threatened them to take her home regardless their opinion.
Social model... nice and expensive joke.
David Naylor: yes, my parents are french, my mother tongue is french. I learned swedish by myself during a six months stay in Sthlm fifteen years ago.
I acknowledge Daniel's opinion about the Swedish health system. Performing a blood test is just like fighting against wind mills, especially if you are french. It took me 1 week before somebody could tell me where to go, and there I waited 5 hours...
I feel sorry for this guy, and I wish such things don't happen in France, or anywhere else.
Don't ever dislocate a shoulder in London: I personally know of cases of over 8 hours wait.
As Damien B. said, in Denmark, we also have a referent. I went once in the hospital for a problem. In less than 10 minutes I was put in a bed and stuck in the hospital for 36h the time to do all the needed tests. Another time I went to my referent, she did some tests right away.
The problem is not the concept of a referent, maybe the application, but Sweden for me is only cheap restaurants, so I have no idea of how the system is working there...