Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Oh Doctor, I’m In Trouble

One always looks for some balance. I have had cause (justifiable) for slagging off the Juaneda group for its handling of the hospital closure affair, but I have never once questioned its medical capabilities. And now I have had first-hand experience.

Like many who have private insurance here, I used to use Hospital d’Alcúdia as a sort of doctor’s surgery. One could pitch up and see a doctor in no time. It was a damn sight more convenient than schlepping all the way to Muro town to see the national-health doctor to whom I am assigned (it also short-cuts the system as you merely get referred to a specialist in any event).

With the move to the Hospital General de Muro in Playa de Muro, I went along yesterday. I have been suffering skin irritations, caused – perhaps – by some medication. I wanted to see the doctor from Alcúdia who had prescribed the original medication. He wasn’t available; he is now also the kind of senior registrar at Muro, the top medical man. Anyway, they booked me in there and then to see a doctor. Waited a few minutes, saw him, a nurse injected me in the backside and then, as I was pulling my pants up, in walks the senior guy. “You wanted to see me,” he said. I had not expected him at all.

The Muro hospital is much more pleasant than the old Alcúdia one. The actual doctor consultation was more like being at a doctor’s surgery than used to be the case at Alcúdia. And you know what? At the reception, there was a lady with a badge which said “interpreter”. You never got that at Alcúdia, except when Helen was working there and acted as one in an unofficial capacity. This, the speed of service and the wholly unexpected appearance of the senior doctor (somebody had to have taken the trouble to have sought him out), and all I can say is very impressive. Never let it be said that I don’t try for a balance.

Oh, one other thing. Returning to a theme that ran for a while last year on the blog, the nurses wear crocs at Muro hospital as well.


QUIZ
Yesterday – The Cocteau Twins. Today’s title – first line of a “comedy” record by which duo?

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