So grateful we are not in the UK for this

[soglad]

We moved from UK to Italy a year and a half ago. On Monday this week my husband felt unwell and his smart watch told him to go see the doctor immediately. He suspected he had atrial fibrillation (AF), as he had it 5 years ago.

He booked to see his GP at 5pm on Tuesday. She diagnosed him with AF and immediately referred him to a specialist hospital.

He was triaged into the hospital the same day at 8pm. At 9pm they started a procedure to correct the heartbeat chemically. It did not work.

At 9am this morning they performed a cardioversion, which restored his normal heart rhythm. They are discharging him today.

So total time from the very first appointment to successful treatment -- 16 hours. Free state healthcare.

This is in a country which a lot of people in the UK describe as poor, corrupt, slow and backwards.

All his doctors spoke good English and even nurses did their best to google translate everything for him.

By contrast, my last experience of helping mum get NHS treatment after a road traffic accident which required urgent operation left me in tears -- weeks and weeks of delays / cancellations meant she almost missed the window of opportunity for surgery as bones started to heal incorrectly. I'm so glad I didn't go through this again.

Clearly great state healthcare is possible, even in a country with a much lower GDP per capita than the UK. Why aren't we doing something?

I'm in Italy too and the Italian system is patchy ime - plus it depends a lot on what region you are in. One thing I love is that you book your own specialist appointments online. The NHS (at least where my parents live) still uses the post and sometimes the notification arrives AFTER the appointment. What a waste!

Waiting lists are really long though and so I often end up having to go private. I also have to pay a contribution to non-urgent care.

This was my brother’s experience too. Cardioversion same day, minor procedure to correct the issue permanently a couple of days later. He says he couldn’t fault his treatment.

Be careful what you wish for, you may end up in the same situation as us in Wales

Same here.

I've been here since 1994 and am wondering where this earthly paradise is that grants a carta di soggiorno post Brexit with no strings attached (when the person wasn't resident prior to December 2020) "linked to a job" and has dentistry which appears to be cheaper than the UK.

Because I'm jumping through the usual hoops to get my carta britannica as the office which will deal with issuing them in my area hasn't opened yet.

My daughter's braces have just cost me £4000 as well.

Though I did get my COVID vaccines very early compared to relatives in the UK I suppose...

PS @soglad have you seen the exposés on TV news shows about waiting lists for things like mammograms? Unless you pay to go privately (which you'll know almost everyone who can ends up doing, for everything) the wait can be literally years.

And the news footage about overflowing hospitals? With people lying in the corridors on trolleys?

Have you noticed that 16 paracetamol here will cost you about £8?

Had your eyes tested yet? That will set you back about £100 if you go to an opticians on the high street.

Etc etc.

Have you noticed that 16 paracetamol here will cost you about £8?

Bloody hell. Maybe I should start selling my 30p packets on the dark web?

I'll buy them 😂.

I've taken to buying in bulk online and can get 24 for about £4 but I do bring back suitcases full of OTC meds when I go back to the UK.

It's really because pharmacists have always had a monopoly on selling even simple OTC stuff, though we have these things called parapharmacies which I think have been given permission to sell very innocuous meds. And of course, they all try to sell you branded ones instead of generic. I get the generic stuff online.

Mammograms are about the only thing I haven't had to wait for! 😂

I had a dreadful experience with the NHS and AF, in fact it’s still ongoing.

I had a brilliant consultant for a short while who managed to bring some order to the chaos but they soon disappeared. It seems to be potluck.

Did your husband have a smart watch the first time around? Sounds ridiculous but that could have made the difference. I have a heard condition and my cardiologist said if it occurs - run an ECG on my Apple Watch then send it to him. The data in the watch probably provided the diagnosis he needed hence the rapid treatment.

Without that immediate data it can obviously take longer. Also AF is far more widely known about and diagnosable today than before.

My FIL had pains in his chest, was taken in by ambulance, and discharged with a stent put in in under 4 hours 🤷‍♀️

How is life in cloud cuckoo land?
I say that as a HCP married to a hospital consultant.

There's no denying there are problems with the nhs but let's not forget the thousands of lives they save each day.

Absolutely this

Not quite sure why half your message is crossed out OP

One thing I would say, as someone who has lived overseas for a very long time. People typically just don't like it when you move away and then say how much better where you live now is and how awful the UK is in comparison.

Like what are we supposed to do with that information. Not everyone can or wants to move out of the UK.

My experience as well is that whilst the 'new home' can seem wonderful at first - after a while you start to see the flaws there as well. Nowhere is perfect. Everywhere does somethings well and somethings badly.

I have a Samsung 6 classic that measures ecg and looks for A fib. I had it once as A fib, but assumed not an issue as hasn't done it again since

So two different medical conditions, in two different hospitals, in different systems, different ages, different sexes and you think you can compare them?

A cardioversion is a very simple procedure. There is no reason to wait 12 hours to do it. I wonder why they waited?

Has he had an EPS? Are they considering ablation? What is causing the AF? Have his atria dilated?

Whether they speak English in Italian hospitals or not has got nothing to do with how good or bad their health care system is!

Christ, it can't be any worse that this self serving shit show can it!

Okay. I laughed.

You would get similar treatment for AF in the Uk too.

Sorry just laughed a bit at the comparison with a 'poorer country'. Yes, technically speaking it's poorer, but.... Italy is in the G7, and only 3 positions down on DGP from the UK. We are not really comparing a hostel to a 5 star hotel here....

Exactly, that's what I took exception to. It's not a poorer country!

If you could get a timely gp appointment and if they had an operating room available and if they had a hospital bed.