The Sorry State of Dutch Medicine Part 2

Despite scrupulously following the instructions on the sign in my company bathroom, I'm worried I might have contracted swine flu. I stayed home from work today and called my doctor's office for an emergency appointment. The receptionist told me I didn't need one, that I should just stay home and "sick it out." It took 5 minutes of my protesting to get her to change her mind.

When I got to the doctor's office, he was more concerned about my shortness of breath than any of my swine flu-ish symptoms (e.g., sore throat, joint pain) and referred me to get a chest x-ray.

I went to the nearest hospital: Diakonessenhuis. (I want to name and shame, so if you ever happen to fall ill in Utrecht you'll know to avoid this place like the plague!)

The waiting room was crawling with ants and one of my fellow patients was a teenage boy guarded by two armed police officers.

When my turn for an x-ray came, I was unpleasantly surprised not to be offered a hospital gown. Maybe that's their way of cutting costs. The x-ray was taken by a middled aged woman who clearly does a hundred of these a day, so that was OK. But I still felt like an animal in a meatpacking factory.

She told me the radiologist was at lunch, but that he'd look at my x-rays in about 15 minutes. So I went back to the waiting room with the ants and the inmate...and waited and waited. (I was listening to a Mark Driscoll sermon on my ipod, so at least the time wasn't entirely wasted.) After over half an hour, I went to reception to ask what was going on. They said they'd look into it. After 15 more minutes, an orderly came up to me to tell me that...my x-rays had been sent to my doctor who would call me with the results tomorrow.

At this point, I don't care what he says. My attempts to get treatment for my possible swine flu are more painful than the disease itself. The receptionist this morning was right. I should have stayed home.