"The situation in the so-called healthcare system."
I have recently been dealing a lot with treating cancer patients.
This involves frequent visits to the hospital: radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and others.
Out of the dozens of hospital visits, not once did the organizational aspect go well.
Either the doctor prescribed the wrong medication, or there was a lack of information about necessary tests, or the doctor forgot what they said. There hasn't been a single damn situation where chaos didn't ensue.
And it's not about the lack of money.
It's about the doctors making wrong decisions and organizational mistakes (ones that don't result in health issues but rather delay proper treatment).
1. Firstly, the patient was referred to repeat a PET scan in a few months. When I arranged a private visit to a specialist, they said that in those few months it would be a funeral, not a PET scan.
2. Through various connections in another voivodeship, we managed to arrange treatment. They were so eager that they wanted to perform surgery. Again, a private visit and diagnosis: "I don't know why my boss is referring her to surgery when there is no chance of her surviving the operation." After a week of examinations, the surgery was canceled. And again, weeks of waiting and chemotherapy with radiotherapy in two separate hospitals.
3. Chemotherapy didn't work. The results were bad. And again, a month of waiting to see what's next.
In the meantime, all possible mistakes: directing the patient to an absent doctor at the hospital, transferring the patient between doctors, issuing instructions to show up without information about the tests - further delays to get the tests done, issuing prescriptions without entering them into the system and the patient being turned away by the pharmacy, assigning oxygen delivery levels from outer space. Registering two patients under one number.
Normally, surviving such chaos in the healthcare system is a challenge for the patient.
In many cases, it's probably about money, that there is a lack of funding for certain treatments. But in my opinion, in the majority of cases, it's about plain organizational chaos.
I have recently been dealing a lot with treating cancer patients.
This involves frequent visits to the hospital: radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and others.
Out of the dozens of hospital visits, not once did the organizational aspect go well.
Either the doctor prescribed the wrong medication, or there was a lack of information about necessary tests, or the doctor forgot what they said. There hasn't been a single damn situation where chaos didn't ensue.
And it's not about the lack of money.
It's about the doctors making wrong decisions and organizational mistakes (ones that don't result in health issues but rather delay proper treatment).
1. Firstly, the patient was referred to repeat a PET scan in a few months. When I arranged a private visit to a specialist, they said that in those few months it would be a funeral, not a PET scan.
2. Through various connections in another voivodeship, we managed to arrange treatment. They were so eager that they wanted to perform surgery. Again, a private visit and diagnosis: "I don't know why my boss is referring her to surgery when there is no chance of her surviving the operation." After a week of examinations, the surgery was canceled. And again, weeks of waiting and chemotherapy with radiotherapy in two separate hospitals.
3. Chemotherapy didn't work. The results were bad. And again, a month of waiting to see what's next.
In the meantime, all possible mistakes: directing the patient to an absent doctor at the hospital, transferring the patient between doctors, issuing instructions to show up without information about the tests - further delays to get the tests done, issuing prescriptions without entering them into the system and the patient being turned away by the pharmacy, assigning oxygen delivery levels from outer space. Registering two patients under one number.
Normally, surviving such chaos in the healthcare system is a challenge for the patient.
In many cases, it's probably about money, that there is a lack of funding for certain treatments. But in my opinion, in the majority of cases, it's about plain organizational chaos.
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