(edit title) Frustrated with Swedish health care Share your experience and advises please! Options

[mackie505]

Hello everyone!

I have been an avid reader of the Local since coming to Sweden. Never really had the need to register up until today! I have a son, 15 months old, he joined Daggis last Autumn and since then, he has been sick now and then i think, everyone understands why this is so. Because of this i have had to seek medical attention now and then and this is where my frustration began. We lived elsewhere since he was born, but moved to Trelleborg last May,i had a very good contact with his former nurse, but have never had any good relationship with the current one in Trelleborg, never answers her phone, always on answering machine and hardly ever calls back when we live a message, on top of that she refuses to speak English with me, so we have to go with my sambo everytime we visit!!

Now the reason am so angry today is because i need to vent out some anger!! I feel so angry and i need to let it out! My son has been sick since Tuesday this week, they called at Daggis so we had to pick him up, and since then hes not been eating well and every time he tries to, he throws up, has had diahorrea and fever, so when we finally got to talk to someone at vardcentral, they suggested they could not deal with it and said we had to go to Malmo at Barnacute!

We arrived there and first had to wait two hours before the nurse came to attend to us to take the general, temp and blah blah! then of course she says that there's nothing wrong with him and we should go home otherwise if we insist to see the doc, then it can be several hours, because according to her, his was not sick enough to be seen by a doctor!

Ofcourse we stood our ground and insisted to be seen, then the trouble began, we were waiting for four hours, all this time the baby getting more and more restless and not eating at all the whole time! So i decided it was enough and went to the nurse station and of course they were about six of them sitting and chatting away, so i decided to give them a peace of my mind...and ranted as much as i could, then we were finally seen...Alas!...after half an hour!

So the doctor says he cant see anything wrong, but i still feel that he is unwell, we arrived home and we tried to feed him but its the same, he throws up!

Anyways am feeling terrible and frustrated! has anyone had this kind of experience and if so, i would like to hear or atleast get an advise on how to deal with this kind of situation!

Any positive replies will be highly appreciated
Mackie

[Puffin]

I have a lot of sympathy - but I am not exactly sure what it is you wanted them to so - your child most likly has winter vomiting disease for which there is no treatment and where most cases are cured by themsleves within 7 days - the fact that the fever has passed is good news

there are so many viruses around at the moment - winter vomiting sickness is doing the rounds and it is very infections and there is no treatment other than to try and get the child to take a few sips of fluids every hour Usually this type of bug lasts for 3-5 days and there is nothing to do other than stick it out at home unless the child is sick enough to be admitted to the infectious illness isolation ward on a drip

The normal baby clinic would freak out if you turned up there - they don't want this to spread to the newborns

Hospitals are very nervous as this virus spreads like wildfire in the air when the infected child coughs, cries sneezes - was talking to someone who works at a hospital where they had been forced to reduce services as 14 of 20 staff were sick themselves!

[Rick Methven]

I was at the vårdcentral the other day and they have a sign up asking parents NOT to take kids who are vomiting there. I was picking up a new blood test meter and all 3 diabetic nurses at the clinic are off sick. My 11 month old granddaughter has had it twice already as have her parents. Doctors know it is a seasonal fact of life and that there is nothing they can do and it passes in a few days. The prevalence of the sickness is put down to the more antiseptic existence we live, being protected from germs.

When I was a child dirty hands and fingers in your mouth were the norm and so kids built up gradual protection from germs. If a kid had something like chicken pox, other kids where sent to play with him-her so that they would get it and build up an immunity.

I was watching my son playing innebandy last Sunday and was very happy to see my granddaughter crawling around the floor and licking her hands!

[mackie505]

Puffin thanks,

I have not had this kind of experience before, been around babies but never seen this, so it freaked me out, i hope it goes away soon too.

mackie

[mackie505]

Rick at least now i know that other children have it here, i just really freaked out i did not know how to deal with this!

[160kph]

My son had this over winter and as much as we knew it was winter vomiting sickness it still worried us. I can imagine your concern if the doctor just tells you there is nothing wrong with when you know there is. I hope your son is better soon.

[Puffin]

I think it is always horrible when your child gets winter vomiting sickness for the first time - as you see your child going down hill but there is nothing that you can do but wait it out - I remember my 12 month old going from a lively learning-to-walk baby to one too weak to sit up in her cot

We were advised to focus on tiny amounts of fluids for 24-48 hours to get fluid into her rathers than trying food that was hard on the stomach - breast of formula milk/ squash with sugar in (but NOT fresh fruit juice), or flat lemonade/coke - you can also get rehydration salts from Apoteket

As long as your child seems alert he is likely OK - but if he starts to be very tired and totally apathetic and uninterested in toys/playing etc then you should take him in to be assessed

[160kph]

I think headlines like "Man dies after twenty doctors ‘miss’ his cancer" in The Local today feed our paranoia when it comes to trusting them.

[byke]

Dear Mackie,
If I am completely honest, visiting a GP or Doctors can be a hit or miss.
But I will say, if you are unhappy with the explanation or treatment.
Try and get a second opinion at a different place.

I know it can be frustrating and time wasting, but the speed of many professions can be often seen as rather slow in Sweden (regardless of the profession or it's importance)

What should a nurse or doctor achieve?

First and foremost they should try to listen to the patient and reassure them and try to make them comfortable.

Secondly a doctor should see you in a reasonable amount of time.
Obviously this can be open to speculation depending what you are used to.

Thirdly, and this is an important one.
While nurses do an important job, they are NOT qualified doctors (same goes for receptionists) and while they both need to try and manage time slots for doctors based on the importance of different patients. But again, they are not a doctor. If you feel you need to see a doctor, for whatever reason. Then make sure you insist, no matter how frugal.

So again,
If you have a small child and are worried about their health.
Keep your feet on the ground, and your butt on the chair.
As if the worst comes to the worst, technically you should be in the best place to take care of you (**laughs**).

On a side note like others have said, kids get sick.
But that doesn't mean doctors should ignore you without seeing the child if you are worried.

Just out of interest, do they have a private emergency hospital in Copenhagen?
If they do and it appears good ... It might be a good idea to take out insurance as a form of peace of mind.

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

I think that one should realize that there is a serious shortage of doctors in the Swedish system, and one must be prepared to await a long time for getting treatment.

I recall when I had my last seizure from poisoning, collapsing unconscious in the parking lot of a nearby recreational area.
An ambulance was called, and it came quickly, testing my vital signs on the way to Danderyd to determine if I had had a stroke or heart attack. Once it was determined that I had had neither, I waited about three or four hours before my head was sewn up, and several more before I had a catscam.

I was not at all disturbed by the delays, as I knew that it was not life-threatening and I just had to be patient.

I know a person who has had more serious health problems which took a long time to fix, and required great patience from the person concerned - what was not always forthcoming because the person wanted the problems fixed more quickly than they could be.

I know another person who often calls an ambulance to go to Danderyd where the person is told by the doctor that there is nothing wrong, and ultimately is taken back home.

In sum. Swedish health people mean it when they say that there is not anything seriously wrong, or there is nothing they can do about it, and I think they mean it. Of course, sometimes they can mistakes with serious consequences.

If you are not satisfied, I would suggest that you go to the nearest emergency room with the infant, and see what happens. Or go to a private doctor for a second diagnosis.

[Jamtjim]

I recall when I had my last seizure from poisoning, collapsing unconscious in the parking lot of a nearby recreational area.

How did you get poisoned Trow? Did you forget to cook your chicken nuggets properly or did you simply fail to apply enough heat to your sausage?

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

I am writing about Swedish health care, and Jamtjim goes out of his way to bring up the cause of my poisoning, as if he doesn't already know.

For posters who don't, I was periodically poisoned by something like ricin when I was in Portugal, complaining about President Clinton's cozying up to sociopaths Richard Nixon, Al 'Deep Throat' Haig, and former Director of Central Intelligence in the White House. I charged them repeatedly of being key players in the assassination of President Kennedy, and Bubba soon got his Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, now the Secretary of Defense, DCI George Tenet, Agency resident in the Lisbon Embassy Michael Thomas, Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, Caldas da Rainha restaurateur José Flour, Já magazine reporter Joäo MacDonald, Probe magazine chairman Jim DiEugenio et al. involved in a plot to kill me with minute doses of it, hoping that I would die from the seizures in a fatal accident or in a sudden death.

It failed, thanks to my having a cardio-vascular system of a youth, but not because of any lack of effort on their part, as they continued for about two years.

[Jamtjim]

No you weren't...

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

The biggest fun I had with Bubba was when he was impeached for his lies, especially with his claim of not having had sex with "that woman".

He was defended by Alan Dershowitz, that completely unprincipled lawyer who would defend anyone, even O. J. Simpson.

When I was visting my sister in the States, I happened to read a bit in The New Yorker where Dershowitz defended his representing Clinton by citing English barrister Henry Brougham's justification of defending any suspect unless he was sure that he was guilty as charged.

Since I was writing a two-volume biography of Brougham, I got the publisher, Barry Rose Legal Publishers, to send Bubba six copies of the first volume where he was a barrister, with a note inside the front cover, stating that it was being provided by a great supporter of the former Arkansas governor.

In due course, I got a signed card from the scum bag President, via Barry Rose, thanking the unknown admirer for the volumes.

Wonder if one of them is still in the White House!

[Jamtjim]

Wonder if one of them is still in the White House!

I doubt it... the bin more likely along with the rest of them!

C'mon Trow we all know it is just a product your egotistical fantasies...