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Recently, I experienced this kind of excellent healthcare service while on holiday with my partner in Bali. She got sick so we phoned a clinic. Immediately, we
by throwaway13337 9y ago
Recently, I experienced this kind of excellent healthcare service while on holiday with my partner in Bali.
She got sick so we phoned a clinic. Immediately, we were asked to come down. The doctor talked with us about theories for what was wrong for at least 20 minutes explaining why it was x and not y casually.
He ran a blood test and within half an hour came up with a likely cause. He sent us home while he had another test that would take longer but would confirm his suspicions from the first test. After getting back those results, he texted us on Whatsapp with a picture of the results sheet he received. He then had a medication delivered by motor bike to our hotel.
After 1 week, he followed up again on Whatapp asking if my partner was feeling okay now.
The whole thing cost 40 euros including tests and medication.
I would love to pay 400 euros for that service anywhere in the West.
Maybe Peppa Pig is the right idea and health care just needs to up their game by removing red tape.
- psergeant 9y agoMy experience suggests that 400eur would get you this exact level of treatment in European private practice, although I suspect medical reports by WhatsApp would make most doctors fall foul of relevant data safety laws. My (extensive) experience of South East Asia is that they’ll run many tests which a European Dr wouldn’t order with a straight face but that you don’t care because it’s generally pretty cheap.
- kobigurk 9y agoI wish. I don't know how to get this service in Israel, for any amount of money.
- jenscow 9y ago> medical reports by WhatsApp At least it has end-to-end encryption. Apart from in-person (which is inconvenient) what's the alternative? Email? SMS? Post? Provided it's a "good news" follow-up, of course.
- psergeant 9y agoI’ve had a private hospital give me an online portal to receive results, with online registration requiring the jumping through of many hoops
- lightbyte 9y agoCleveland Clinic does this, and it's amazing. The first time I went in they gave me a little sheet of paper that had a code to sign up to their site with (myChart) and now I can get all of my test results, make appointments, and message my doctor all online.
- manyxcxi 9y agoI’ve got a few doctor’s offices/clinics that are in MyChart. It’s wildly convenient. The app and site are generally poorly designed, but work well enough that I’d rather have it than not.
- sincerely 9y agoThe Universal Health Network of hospitals in Ontario have recently started using an online portal as well - the interface is a little intuitive but it's so much better than the alternative
- ianhowson 9y agoOne alternative is to require patients to attend a followup visit to have the report read to them, inconveniencing the patient and wasting insurance/taxpayer dollars.
- senorjazz 9y agoThey need to run more tests because you don't mess around with many tropical diseases that just are not a problem in Europe
- amelius 9y ago> My experience suggests that 400eur would get you this exact level of treatment in European private practice One of the problems is actually that you cannot tell what a certain level of treatment will cost.
- toyg 9y agoIt's not red tape. It's the millions of (occasionally even aggressive) hypocondriacs, careless people who book appointments and then don't show up, über-entitled tossers who compensate their low status in life by trying to boss around their legally-mandated healthcare providers, and the highly-functioning mentally ill. These people will hog any system. In some countries they are discouraged by high fees (your 40 euros in Bali are cheap for you but very expensive for locals), but those fees will then become a barrier for a lot of people who really need the service. I honestly don't know the answer, but there must be ways to create barriers that are porous enough to let the genuinely ill people in and the hoggers out.
- dazc 9y agoI haven't seen a GP for years although, because of age, I probably ought to just to get a few things checked out. The last time I tried to make an appointment I gave up after encountering a phone that just wasn't being answered - except for the time I got a message saying they were busy and to call back later. Anecdotally, in the UK this now normal. Apparently you have to beat the system by calling at a certain time and saying your problem is urgent. Obviously, all the people you are referring to know all about this; it's just suckers like me who have to suffer. The NHS is free at the point of use in the UK - except for dentistry which is only free if you have a low income, etc. Most folks (in my experience) go full on private and pay a monthly fee plus insurance. It isn't expensive (unless you need some major work doing) and the standard of dental care has improved many fold as a consequence.
- pmyteh 9y agoDentistry's an odd one. In some parts of the country it certainly used to be essentially impossible to get an NHS dentist, and in others it's easy. There are multiple dental surgeries accepting new NHS patients in Oxford, for example, which is by no means a cheap place to operate. Although NHS dental treatment isn't generally free for adults, it is pretty cheap. I've been lucky enough to find an NHS surgery everywhere I've lived and the standard of care has been generally excellent.
- 9y ago
- thinkMOAR 9y agoI'm too scared now to lookup difference in price for an ambulance (after calling 911/112)..
- harperlee 9y agoYou don't need to look it up, just subtract $0 to know the difference: ambulances are free in most countries.
- Double_a_92 9y agoIt's about 1000$ in Switzerland. But if it was emergency or an accident your health insurance will pay.
- thinkMOAR 9y agoOh having been in a few, i know the bill is 1000'ish euros in NL, sure insurance 'pays'. And i still have to pay my insurance, which goes up every year.
- DanBC 9y agoWe know that over-testing, over-diagnosis, and over-treatment causes harm, so while what you describe may have been useful for your partner it's harmful when applied to a population.
- shas3 9y agoYeah this is almost the same experience in India too. Specialists like orthopedics, ob-gyn, etc. are often walk-in or same day appointments, and finish everything for under $50-$100. The only drawback with the overall health system in India is that there is mind boggling inequality. Easy access to specialists is true in big cities in good neighborhoods, but hospitals and healthcare can truly be medieval in remote or poor villages.
- signal11 9y agoThere's also a massive variation in standards. You'd think price and quality are correlated but one does have to perform due diligence as private hospitals routinely overcharge and prescribe unnecessary tests/procedures. A bigger problem is that the justice system in India is (almost?) dysfunctional so good luck suing a private hospital if things go wrong. Your only hope is that the media picks it up, which can force the government to take action, e.g. [1]. [1] http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/haryana-probes-rs-16-lakh-bill-for-dengue-patient/article20630318.ece http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/haryana-pro...
- X86BSD 9y agoWhat you just described honestly sounds a lot like direct pay here in the states. If you google “direct pay doctors” in your city you will find some. Doctors offering direct pay are cash only. They charge a small monthly fee. Here in Missouri it’s about $100/month. For that $100/month you get seen the same day!!! I haven’t been able to get seen by a doctor the same day since I was like 5 and that was 1980. Usually it’s a week or so before an appointment can be made. You also get an hour with the doctor. No rushing you in and out to increase turnover. Most things up to minor urgent care are included as well including stitches and lacerations. You only pay for materials used. Which is usually very cheap. A couple bucks for gauze. A couple for stitches. Medication and labs massively reduced from insurance rates. Flu shots are free. Etc Direct pay providers are becoming more common as more and more doctors say “screw insurance and federal government red tape and regulations”. They are just absolutely done with the mess and pain of insurance and government regulations. Most even provide house calls! House calls! I haven’t seen a doctor do house calls since little house on the prairie! Seriously if you are in the states look into it! The wife and I are more than likely moving to direct pay with a high dedeuctible catastrophic insurance plan this year and we will be saving over $500/month on our employee provided Cadillac insurance plan.