I don’t like talking about my very ordinary personal life. I’m making an exception today.
In my age category, it is recommended to have your prostate and colon examined periodically. Not very glorious, I know.
Nothing
In January 2023, my doctor told me it was time to have a colonoscopy, the last one being in 2017.
She sends a request to the nearest public hospital, the one I went to in 2017.
If you haven’t been called in six months, come back and see me, she said.
Ten months later, nothing.
Not even a call to tell me that the request had been received, or to tell me my rank on the waiting list, much less to give me an exam date.
Nothing. I do not exist.
I’m going back to see my doctor. Armed with a new request, I decide to try my luck in the region where I now live.
xy – stock.adobe.com
In the public network, I am informed that all requests must be sent to a regional appointment management center.
I call. A very courteous young man takes my information and explains to me that I will receive a confirmation by mail in two months.
I’m surprised. By mail? Yes.
Confirmation of my exam date?
No, the young man explains to me, as professional as ever: we will confirm to you by letter, in two months, that you are indeed on a waiting list.
I ask innocently: what delays can I expect?
He won’t get wet about it, he says, but it could take a while.
He asks: does your doctor consider you a priority case? I answer: no.
So we’ll have to wait, he said. End of interview.
- Listen to Joseph Facal’s column via QUB radio :
Between the branches, I learned that it would be very surprising if someone called me before a year.
In short, no better than in my former region of residence.
I’m looking into private clinics.
I call on a Friday. I’m told a nurse will call me on Monday.
Monday, they call me to explain how it works for them.
On Tuesday, I was told the price and offered a date for the procedure.
In two weeks!!
I say yes.
On Wednesday, a nurse explains to me how I should prepare until then.
In three days, it was resolved.
I measure my privilege.
What would you do if you were in my position? Wait while listening to sermons about private “badness”?
And those who don’t have the means, what do they do? They hang around, when they are not completely forgotten.
Reality
The problem is not the quality of care, it is accessibility. Additional billions have changed nothing.
We are told to take care of our health, to take charge of ourselves, to practice prevention…
But there comes a time when fine speeches crash violently against the wall of reality.
How many tens of thousands of banal stories like this?
And we tear our guts out in indignation because the private sector is progressing…
