A few weeks before, I happened to have been in the UK visiting family and so visited the doctor over there who just gave me a pretty high dose of ibuprofen and some meds to protect my tummy from the anti-inflammatory medication. He said to take that for about a month and then we'd come back and see how it was and whether they'd need to take any bloods or do any further tests.
I didn't start the medication straight away since the meds for the tummy contained gelatine and so weren't really halal. Plus I was a bit skeptical about taking such strong doses and strong medication when I still didn't know what the actual problem was.
The GP in Munich told me that the dose prescribed from the doctor in the UK was normal but also referred me to a specialist to have a proper look at my wrist.
The following day, so yesterday, I went to my appointment with the specialist and I was quite struck by all the differences to the UK healthcare system. While it's all privatised here, so you need a health insurance card to make all appointments, it seems a lot more efficient. The specialist saw me and listened to my problem, took an ultrasound scan straight away in his office, and then, because it was a long-term pain, sent me to get an X-ray done. I almost thought the X-ray was going to take place another day or even if it was the same day, the appointment to see him again would be much later, but in fact I sat outside in another waiting area for my X-ray, was called in and had that done and then soon was called back to see the doctor who told me what was wrong. He told me that I just needed to pick up a cast from one of the orthopaedic centres and to come back in two weeks to see how I progress. That whole process from seeing the doctor at the beginning to leaving the surgery was 1 hour.
While it might seem long to someone who had to be at work for something that morning, the problem was more or less addressed all the way through in one session instead of several appointments. I also found that the ambience in the surgery was different, with people greeting the group of people already in the waiting room upon entering (something I learnt after I had not done it and saw others doing so after me!) and having a coat stand to allow patients to remove extra layers and feel a bit more relaxed, and providing glasses and a water station in the waiting room.
It really got me thinking and comparing healthcare systems since I'd never been to the doctor's outside of the UK. I ended up asking lots of questions to my husband, asking about how things worked in France and I feel that there are so many things to learn in looking at the different systems.
