FlyingFox86 t1_j472gnv wrote on January 13, 2023 at 4:52 PM

Reply to comment by saintofhate in Ukrainian refugee 'went home to see doctor as Scottish wait too long' by themimeofthemollies

Seriously, a year for a GP? How can that even be a thing? What did you say when you finally got there? Hi doctor, I was dealing with a cough a year ago but I'm better now?

I can only get appointments for my GP on the same day as making the appointment. But I'm not from the UK.

saintofhate t1_j473di6 wrote on January 13, 2023 at 4:57 PM

Basically. I'm also not from the UK, I'm from Philly but I have medicaid and the doctors hate my insurance because they often underpay or forget to pay. Specialists can take even longer. I'm currently waiting to get surgery done but the OR the doctor uses has no open slots for the foreseeable time and has to wait until the next schedule comes out.

FlyingFox86 t1_j475wql wrote on January 13, 2023 at 5:13 PM

Ah yes, the US. I can't say I'm well informed, but I've heard things about your healthcare.

I'm from Belgium and it's pretty decent here. Cheap, mandatory health insurance, good accessibility to doctors, and well equipped, modern hospitals everywhere. Plenty to complain about if you want, but compared to a ton of other places in the world, I feel extremely lucky to be born here.

Usually, you can get an appointment with your GP in a matter of days, or the same day. In case of my own GP, he introduced a rather annoying system where you can only make an appointment for that day, from 7 in the morning. That mean I have to be ready with the app or behind my PC at that time, because all the appointment slots are filled up in a matter of minutes. No idea why he did that, but compared to having to wait weeks or months, it's fine.

Specialists do take longer here as well, on average, but there is usually something to be done if the matter is a little urgent. Like, if my GP thinks I should really see a specialist soon, he might make a call to the specialist himself to get me squeezed in.