Just saw an article in The Telegraph that in the UK, they let medical assistants or even non medically trained staff learn brain surgery on the job. Looking in the comments, you find a lot of people saying this is the case with many health departments in the UK because of a massive shortage of doctors and how far behind the waitlist is.
If you live in the UK you’ll know private care is quite expensive compared to the average salary and also quite difficult to access.
Is the rest of Europe the same? Is there a country that seems to have it reasonably under control? I understand COVID put a lot of strain on all medical personnel across the world. I’m just curious what the situation is in other places.
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For Polish NHS the pandemic was a nail in the coffin. Everyone could see how inefficient it all has always been and because of COVID it got way worse. There’s shortage of doctors (and pharmacists too) and long waitlists as well. Lots of doctors are old, and many young doctors emigrate, so it’s gonna be very bad in the future.
Well, Polish NHS is one of the worst in entire Europe, so what could I say more?
Hungarian healthcare is also collapsing. It was never stellar to begin with (even 15 years ago, there were jokes that you are better off putting on a dog costume and going to a vet, like Butters in South Park), but ever since the Pandemic it is on a straight nosedive. Shortage of doctors, incompetent doctors leading hospital departments, patients with a terminal illness misdiagnosed and sent home to die etc.
It isn’t completely collapsing like some others are, but the medical staff in general, and especially nurses, have had it very rough these last few years with underpayment and way too much work. But I can’t say I have heard of people learning to perform operations on the fly. It’s a vicious cycle with our staff shortages. They aren’t paid enough, so people won’t study to become nurses; so, the ones at hand are asked to work longer hours, thus scaring further prospective students away. And on it goes. It is, in theory, easy to solve, but our government refuses to do so
Having lived in the UK, I know the NHS has it *really* bad right now, but I must say I am somewhat sceptical of that claim if it is just the Telegraph reporting it alone
Big medical scandal in Ireland at the moment with non medically safe parts being put in to children during spinal surgeries for scoliosis. Springs bought off amazon were involved. A child died. We also have the same issues as everywhere else with underfunding, overcrowding and years long waiting lists.
Yes lol. Nobody wants to work in the public healthcare. Doctors and nurses are fleeing into private sector.
I have a feeling you could do with reading a different news paper and not one who’s owners are invested in dismantling the health care system.
Edit: Clarification there is definitely huge problems, but I’d question how much truth there is to that story.
While the quality of healthcare per se is still good, at least in central and northern Italy, waiting lists are becoming ridiculously long for non-urgent visits and exams. Prevention initiatives, such as mass screening for common cancer pathologies (breast, cervix, prostate, colon) are being delayed or cancelled.
Emergency care is – in my (fortunately indirect) experience – rather good, though there are occasional mishaps.
I don’t know if staff also needs to take over vastly different tasks like the brain surgery example but I know our nurses (maybe others too) are fleeing to the private sector and the situation is not great at all. Public hospitals are crumbling and generalists who don’t take new patients are becoming the norm so it’s hard to find a doctor near you. And the ones who retire have a hard time finding replacements.
First rule is don’t believe something just because you read it in the Telegraph.
Overall I wouldn’t say it’s doing fantastic but it’s doing OK. There’s a big staff shortage like everywhere, which leads to longer waiting lists. Including a lack of GPs which impacts the quality of care they can offer as more and more lands on their plate.
Overall the Netherlands is relatively restrictive with care compared to other countries. There’s stricter selection about what needs to be done at a hospital and what can be done for a much lower cost at a GP. When you should have medical intervention and when you shouldn’t. That helps in situations like this because there is a somewhat lower demand of services than there would be if you had a very “just in case” focused health care system.
So things are still doing pretty good. Wait lists exist but aren’t generally in “4+ months” territory (apart from mental health care). There aren’t long wait times for ambulances. If you have an emergency you can be treated in an appropriate time.
There is no private care to speak of here as well. There’s some independent clinics but they’re covered by most insurances. At most there’s some private companies offering blood and imaging tests and such but I don’t know anyone who’s actually used one of those.
Not in Portugal. Here everything is great…
Ok there is a small issue of emergencies in some hospitals being closed at night because they don’t have doctors. Maternities as well…and a lot of people can’t get a family doctor.
Other than that, our public Health care system is perfect! (Yes irony, things are shit over here)
I think healthcare is politicised in the UK in a way that it just isn’t in some other countries. Waiting times are long here too, but it hasn’t gained that much political attention.
I don’t know if staff also needs to take over vastly different tasks like the brain surgery example but I know our nurses (maybe others too) are fleeing to the private sector and the situation is not great at all. Public hospitals are crumbling and generalists who don’t take new patients are becoming the norm so it’s hard to find a doctor near you. And the ones who retire have a hard time finding replacements.
The Romanian healtcare system has been struggling since before the Revolution in ’89. Underpaid staff, undermanned hospitals and horrible living conditions there are the main problems that we’ve been trying to deal with for decades now. The pandemic hit the country like a brick. You now had tens of thousands of sick people flooding the hospitals and overworking the already overworked medical staff. Back on the Romanian sub there were pictures of nurses sleeping in the hallways of the hospitals after full 24 hour shifts.
But hey, I’m optimistic. We’ve managed to improve tremendously in the past three decades. The emergency service is somewhat ok nowadays so that’s something.
Yes. Unfortunately, it has became too bad.
To start, due to inflation, doctors are earning less. Hospitals are getting less investments. Because of this doctors are trying to leave the country. Maybe they can solve the problems in Germany or somewhere in Europe.
Now, there is some trend in least developed regions to beat doctors because they are not their personal 7/24 carer or they are not doing enough to easy their pains while they have given them legal requirements of painkillers. Due to refugees, system is crippled. I remember times where I could find an appointment next day now, I need to wait days and always refugees have priority. Due to refugees, we have smallpox or more cases with rabies after erased over decades. People gets less time to meet with doctors which result them working over time. People with money prefers private hospitals because of waiting time. I think covid did not make it much affect than refugee in my city.
Yes, the vaxx unfortunately has massively increased cancer and heart disease and healtcare systems can’t cope.