Difficult situation with MIL seriously ill in Spain, anyone any experience of Spanish Healthcare ?

[Kittypickle]

My MIL is 75 and has cancer of the Oseophagos and lives in Spain with my FIL who is 80 and had a triple heart bypass 3 years ago. They have been out in Spain for nearly 20 years now.
She has been having intensive chemo, radiotherapy and one other drug therapy for a couple of months. Currently is having a break before they will scan her again shortly to see what the situation is. FIL rang tonight and wants DH to go and see her, to "buck her up". One of his brothers has just been out, sister went when first diagnosed. Their other brother has just also had heart surgery (DH is the baby of the family by some way) and has vanished off somewhere on holiday which his Dad is cross about. DH said that his Dad had stopped himself saying that she isn't going to make it - sounds very much as if he is trying to make sure that she gets to see all 4 of the children.
MIL has lost 2.5 stones in the last two months,is 7 st 10lbs, can barely swallow half of one of the two packets of meal replacements she has been given. Can't walk and has to be washed etc by DH's father, who really in my opinion needs looking after himself as has never been brilliant following bypass. I think she needs to be admitted for a feeding tube, fluids and for some pain relief but it seems that the hospital who had been excellent with the initial treament, just wash their hands of them at this stage and say it is the result of the chemo. Apparently the two weeks after she finish will be terrible, then she should start to rally. Two weeks is nearly over.
I've said to FIL to ring hospital to try to get her admitted again but I don't think he is being forceful enough (very understandably) and I have volunteered to speak to the hospital or local clinic (who do apparently speak English) to help get her some care. He seems to think he needs to do it all by himself and I don't think he will accept my help.
DH and I are booked on flights to go out next Thursday night whilst my lovely friend looks after the children. How on earth does the whole system work ? From what I can work out there is a reciprocal arrangement with the NHS. Do I have any chance of getting her admitted for pallative care ? They desperately need help in coping from what I can hear and it's a complete nightmare. Would feel much happier if she was back in UK but obviously gone beyond that point now. Sorry this is so long.

My inlaws are Spanish and I could say that the cancer care my FIL had was excellent. However, I understand that the same way that you can not expect all hospitals to have the same high standards here in the UK, you can not expect that from the Spanish ones either. There is a reciprocal agreement between all EU countries which your MIL may be already using unless she is going through a private insurance. If the hospital expenses are paid by a good private insurance there should be no significant problem in getting more help, other wise... well I believe the same that you see here applies overthere

Thank you for replying Chandra. I think they are getting treatment under the reciprocal care agreement and until now the care had been excellent, which was why they chose to remain there. However it seems to have completely broken down and it's so hard to know what on earth to do. I don't think they have any private insurance apart from for ambulances, never quite got to the bottom of it when I asked her. I am not close to my PILs but I am so worried about them. I wish to goodness that they had come home to start this. DH and his brothers and sisters have had their head in the sand about this. If she was here I am sure they would be getting support from the Macmillian Nurses and they really do need it. I knew this would happen and tried to warn his sister at the beginning that their Dad wouldn't be fit enough to cope but she really didn't take it on board.

Why don't you contact the McMillan nurses and ask if they could help? (just in case you are considering the idea of moving her all the way to being cared for here).

I wish I could tell you something more helpful but in all honesty I have never used the public health system there, private was excellent (proof of that is that I still continue to use it from time to time even when I work for the NHS). Although, due to cultural differences I wouldn't be at all surprised at them expecting the family to take a very active part in the care of the patient.

I would try to hear what your FIL is trying to say, perhaps your MIL want to spend sometime away from the hospital, I knew my FIL did. Palliative care is widely available he just needs to ask for the dose to be adjusted.

Palliative care is available, FIL was sent home with medicines to keep the pain under control, and many other things he never got to use. The only thing that I could tell you is that if your FIL really wants everyone to show up in Spain asap, and she has been sent home

That last paragraph shouldn't be there! I tried to explain it better in the one above it, but didn't see I had not erased it before posting.

I do know what you are trying to say Chandra. FIL says that MIL feels let down by the hospital as they said originally that if she couldn't swallow (which she apparently can't really) they would admit her. However, I guess we don't really know what is going on,she may well not want to go in and stay in her own bed and for all their talk of a cure the chemo etc may well have been pallative - it is very difficult when they are far away.

Tomorrow (or later should I say !) I am going to ring CancerBacup and Macmillan. It crossed my mind earlier about seeing if there is any chance whatsoever about getting her back. I know nothing about this at all and have no idea if it is in the slightest bit feasible but feel we need to look into it. We'll get a better idea if there is any chance of her pulling through in a week when we get there, though I feel very much along the lines of if he is making sure she has seen each of them that he must now think she can't make it through, poor DH Next appointment with the consultant is supposed to be 4th August for more scans,who knows.

I'm sorry Kittypickle. But I think that the fact that they have things planned for next month is a very positive thing. Keep trying, where are they located? wondering if the details of my FIL's oncologists would be of any use.

They are in Javea. Thank goodness they moved from the mountains into the town so at least they have got things on the doorstep. If by any chance your FIL is anywhere nearby I would appreciate the details in case things aren't any better when we get out there. Hopefully it is the chemo & radiotherapy and she will start to turn the corner, but who knows. Thank you so much, you are a big help, I thought everyone would be asleep as I should be !!

FIL was treated in Palma and Barcelona (sorry, I'm not Spanish and have no clue where Javea is ) If it's near please let me know and I will try to get you the telephone numbers asap.

It's not a very big town and why I assumed you would know where it is I have no idea My geography is pretty rubbish but I think they are some way from each other, but thank you anyway. I am going to try to sleep again, hopefully third time lucky ! You have been a huge help Chandra, thank you very much.

The nearest big town/city to Javea would be Alicante to the south or Valencia to the north. I hope that helps.

Its an extremely long way from Barcelona.