I'm also from Germany, and going through some treatments right now (Surgery/Orthopedics) and I think this comment is too harsh. It overemphasises that some doc

I'm also from Germany, and going through some treatments right now (Surgery/Orthopedics) and I think this comment is too harsh. It overemphasises that some doctors may seem arrogant, or staff may have a negative attitude. For instance Internet connectivity is not "catastrophically" bad, (could indeed be better, though). An overlooked trend that has has changed communication patterns with patients for the worse is a trend towards larger joint practices with doctors as employees often not working fulltime. Joint practices tend to have larger, fuller waiting rooms, and which necessarily results in (in my experience) a more stressful doctor-visiting atmosphere. Moreover, paperwork has become more complex also for patients, e.g. when agreements and waivers (for operations) have to be signed, nobody has the time to explain these. Nobody can explain finer points of medicine prescriptions, and usage of technical helping equipments (e.g. hearing aids). The staff at the front desk can't explain this, and the doctors do not have the time to either. These are all general problems, not Germany-specific.