Regarding saving money, I managed to force an appointment with a specialist doctor for my son from the health center after the usual discussion about waiting and seeing. At the hospital at 09:30, the ward he was supposed to go to was empty, we were alone in the ward and after a quarter of an hour an elderly lady arrived.
When we went out, they have a small health center next door and my son now also has ear pain on top of everything else. It was empty so we asked if they could see my son – no, it must be booked via 1177. Spontaneous visits are not allowed.
My wife rarely gives up without a discussion so there was a discussion, and then she had to give in 🙂
The queue to 1177 was astronomical (and they always refer you back to the regular health center anyway) and the call from the local health center was in the afternoon so my wife decided to go directly to the local health center with my son, it was also quite empty so the doctor was just happy to have something to do – it was antibiotics for ear infection.
Healthcare case solved in the smoothest possible way but not as the system wants it to be solved.
Point – we have a system in Sweden where the number of patients seen is not optimized, they make the door to healthcare very difficult to get through and then qualified care is not full. There would have been 20 people in line for the ward and the same at the health center.
I know it’s a bit bold to write this after Covid because the healthcare staff have exhausted themselves but this is directed at the system as such, not the hard-working healthcare staff who deserve all respect. We have year-long queues where people die and you could absolutely see more patients/day without increasing anything.
If it’s quiet at some hospitals, it probably works that people in line take an hour’s train ride to another location where there is capacity, if the choice is painful death or an hour’s train ride, I think everyone would choose to avoid death?
Then I couldn’t help but think about the electricity cost for the hospital, what a money drain it must be, I wonder if they have fixed or variable electricity prices and if the operations are done when electricity is cheapest or if they just go full throttle.
10:49
Regarding saving money, I managed to force an appointment with a specialist doctor for my son from the health center after the usual discussion about waiting and seeing. At the hospital at 09:30, the ward he was supposed to go to was empty, we were alone in the ward and after a quarter of an hour an elderly lady arrived.
When we went out, they have a small health center next door and my son now also has ear pain on top of everything else. It was empty so we asked if they could see my son – no, it must be booked via 1177. Spontaneous visits are not allowed.
My wife rarely gives up without a discussion so there was a discussion, and then she had to give in 🙂
The queue to 1177 was astronomical (and they always refer you back to the regular health center anyway) and the call from the local health center was in the afternoon so my wife decided to go directly to the local health center with my son, it was also quite empty so the doctor was just happy to have something to do – it was antibiotics for ear infection.
Healthcare case solved in the smoothest possible way but not as the system wants it to be solved.
Point – we have a system in Sweden where the number of patients seen is not optimized, they make the door to healthcare very difficult to get through and then qualified care is not full. There would have been 20 people in line for the ward and the same at the health center.
I know it’s a bit bold to write this after Covid because the healthcare staff have exhausted themselves but this is directed at the system as such, not the hard-working healthcare staff who deserve all respect. We have year-long queues where people die and you could absolutely see more patients/day without increasing anything.
If it’s quiet at some hospitals, it probably works that people in line take an hour’s train ride to another location where there is capacity, if the choice is painful death or an hour’s train ride, I think everyone would choose to avoid death?
Then I couldn’t help but think about the electricity cost for the hospital, what a money drain it must be, I wonder if they have fixed or variable electricity prices and if the operations are done when electricity is cheapest or if they just go full throttle.