In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
as george says its easy to join.... in fact one of the easier things... what you do once you have joined is pay for just about everything ....
not just foreigners.... most italians... unless say you are having major surgery,treatmant or emergency
in a general sense for those people that vist the doctor here they all go to private ones...the private ones give a perscription on a piece of paper and they take it to what would be your gp in england and he fills it onto an official bit of paper.... that is about all he ever does...
the private ones are all very good.... according to local chat ..... but you do have to pay.... even for xrays and such if you go to a hospital you queue once for registering yourself... short housr so always big queues... next you queue to pay even bigger .... next you queue to have the picture.... cost around ten to fifteen euro for an uncomplicated version and roughly a few weeks to get the results... hasten to say you have to queue to pick them up as they dont send them out to doctor.. private xray... appointment given on the phone.... appointment time kept within couple of minutes... costs about twice the hospital rate... picture developed and given to you at that time....
hospital visit.. minimum half day and immense stress... e15
private visit 30 mins... no stress and e 30
i think the above example will really follow throughout the two services... and much as in england the doctors and nurses in both areas are very good.... but here even more so than in england the administration paper work side operates in the 50s.... and cannot cope with the numbers... they are also in general the only rude people you will meet here...
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Thank you both for your kind advice.
Hospital
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 07/05/2005 - 02:42In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
We met our interpreter on Tuesday last at 2pm and he was limping very badly. He was then going to the hospital to have his foot looked at and we had arranged to meet him again at 5pm at the notary office to do our final signing. He turned up on time, foot bandaged and on crutches.
His view of the health service in the Ostuni area was excellent. He said he waited no longer than an hour, had an ex-ray and was back out in no time complete with perscription for anti-inflamitories and able to meet us on time as arranged.
:) Vincent, if your reading this I hope your foot is much better.
Paula Hampson
Joining it is easy, there was a superb article in the magazine a few months ago, on a day to day level, the farmacia is your best contact, Doctors tend only to recommend you to a series of tests, or specialists, my only other experience has been with the ambulance service which was tragic, but the service provided was superb and relatively fast.