A friend of mine posted about her experience with healthcare in Asia, providing insight into the disturbing state of the healthcare system in the West. Many still call Western nations (Europe, USA, commonwealth countries, etc) the "first world", and assume the provision of health services to be better than anywhere else. I think my friend's post makes the current situation pretty obvious:
"The Doctors have already given up, she is very old to go through any procedures. She stays in London and there getting help is not as easy as one can get in India. It is very expensive also.."
You read that right. Healthcare in England is currently worse, slower, and more expensive than in India. There isn't even a debate. This is just mentioned matter-of-factly in a discussion about something else. It's just how things are. If you're shocked, perhaps that's because you've been healthy for the last several years, and haven't needed any operations, or treatments for serious health conditions.
Well, I have.
I've been dealing with Canada's healthcare system regularly for the past 9 years, and worked as a nurse during the '00s. I've spoken and written a lot about it. What I'd like to write about today is an experience I had this afternoon.
I've been dealing with abdominal pain for 6 months. It was intermittent and mild at first, but it gradually became worse. Then a few weeks ago, it got quite bad, and became mixed with a few other symptoms in the same region. Some of those symptoms were worrisome, so I made an appointment to see a doctor. (I don't actually have a family doctor "GP"... I have to see the specialist I was connected to when I had my heart surgery last year.)
I saw him for about 15 minutes. He asked some questions and assessed a few things, then sent me for an ultrasound. This is a very cheap and easy test that can be done almost anywhere, any time for essentially no cost. A few days later, I spent the afternoon at the hospital, to get that scan done. The results were sent to my specialist, but the technician who did it said they didn't really find anything conclusive.
That was 10 days ago. I haven't heard back from the doctor about the scan results. The pain and other symptoms are still there in my lower gut. Not good. Well, if he's not going to call me, I guess I have to call him.
So I called his number this afternoon, and it went right to voicemail. The message said "leave all your personal details" and "give us 3 business days to get back to you".
So now I'm waiting 3 business days (5 calendar days) just to hear back from the doctor's receptionist? At which point I will be given a telephone "appointment" "with" him... about 3 weeks from then?
In other words, it's going to take me a month, just to speak with the doctor about the results of the scan he ordered (which apparently didn't even find the issue)! A month of my life, gone, while whatever it is continues to get worse, and slows me down. Even with acetaminophen and cannabis for pain, it often hurts enough to be distracting, keep me awake at night, or make me grumpy. I don't like to imagine how it will feel it it gets any more intense.
It sucks, because I've had serious health issues (every single one of them either completely undiagnosed, or diagnosed but with no known cause) nonstop since 2016. I had surgery for life-threatening heart failure and arrhythmia in August, which helped a lot. I managed to get my life back in order, to some degree anyway, over the past few months. But now here I am again, in pain, and so far not able to figure out why.
I have none of the risk factors for any of these conditions that keep coming along and threatening to end me. I am very fit, active, health-conscious, and focused on a healthy lifestyle. I live a low-stress life of taking care of my 2 lovely children and my wife. I live in a relatively stable and peaceful part of the world. I don't use drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. Nothing explains why I'm falling apart like a 90 year old.
It wouldn't be quite so bad, if it didn't take a month to speak to your doctor! And it's like that with everything. A month wait for speak to the doctor, 2 weeks to get a test done, a week for the results to come back, 3 weeks wait for a phone appointment, and so on. And often, nothing comes of it all... except a lot of your time and energy wasted. And the population just gets sicker, sadder, and poorer in a vicious cycle.
Canada's healthcare is worse than China's. England's is worse than India's. The USA's is by FAR the most expensive in the world. And while it's true that some places (like most of Africa) have serious problems with the healthcare system, they also don't have the red tape and bloated big pharma bullshit that we've got here. You can get Ivermectin for a few bucks in any corner store. Here? I've been trying to find some for months, even willing to pay hundreds of dollars online... still no options. We're not allowed to have it here because it cures Covid immediately, and if people knew that, they'd know the whole plandemic was created to further enslave them. Can't have that, can they? So the bullshit continues.
It's a deathcare system. If you've been seriously sick in the West recently, you understand that. You may find caring individuals (though less and less often nowadays)... but the system itself is not set up to help you. It's not there to keep you healthy, happy, and stable. It's there to control you and to profit off you, period, the end. The bottom line is the bottom line. It was never supposed to be this way, but here we are, and I don't know if there's any going back. It's broken.
Here I am, living in Canada in 2025... trying to order a safe and effective tablet that is made in South America, from a website in Africa. While wishing I had access to the healthcare system in India.
I wish my friend's friend the best. Sounds like a frustrating situation, being stuck in London with a dying relative, wishing you could be in Asia, but government red tape prevents it. Forced to stay, and die, in an inferior decrepit old system that does anything but promote health.
Comments greatly welcomed.
(this discussion thread purposely has no image)
DRutter
This is so true, most of my relatives come to India for all their health treatments because in the west even to get the Doctor's appointment it will take 3 to 4 months minimum, possibly by then the condition can get worst and private treatment is way too expensive to afford.
In her case, given her age and the last few days it is not even possible to make her travel :-(
Here in India even to get a care giver help is easily available and economical compared to the west.
In Middle East we can get affordable medical and good help just like India, but here the quality of diagnosis and treatment is not yet up to the mark and hence majority of the people from here including the locals travel to India if there is any complicated ailment.
India is not very cheap also for medical treatment but the only difference is one gets quick help and attention and there are best Doctors available.
Gosh I am so sorry to hear you are unwell again! You hardly got a break at all!
An elderly friend of mine broke her hip recently in Vietnam. She had surgery the very next day, was up and walking the day after that. Here, it would have taken a very long and painful time.
If I am doing the math right, your GI issues started soon after your surgery. This suggests that the issue is related to the drugs you were administered or took, or are still taking, for that. A homeopath could help you, and, since the issue is fairly new, it would likely bring relief fairly quickly! If you want to be referred to one, or even would like me to take a look at your case (for free), let me know. The remedies are inexpensive, too.