My mum used to call me when she hears something in the news. “Hey, do you know it is happening right now in London? Please be careful. We love you.”
How can I know? Why Slovak media is blowing up everything so much? It is not always true what they say. And now there is an article which is dividing Slovak people living in the UK into two categories. Those who are happy with the health care in the UK and those who are not.
The article says that the UK has the worst health care, according to OECD. They said: “Do you have a headache? Take an ibuprofen. Does your tooth ache? Take an ibuprofen. Stomach ache? Take an ibuprofen. That is how the health care looks in the UK. Sometimes you have a feeling that you are coming to the pharmacy rather than to a specialist who studied medicine for many years.”
And that is what made Slovaks angry and divided them. The conversation started to be rapid, both on the Slovak side and on the English side. As always, people agree and disagree.
Generally, Slovaks living in the UK go back home for a general health care, to visit dentists or gynaecologists. It is just something people always do because they feel their doctor has all the previous records of their past pills or anything relevant to their health, so they trust him. And it is true, because they do have the records and they do have a relationship with them. What is more important, they speak the same language.
But the article is saying the health care in the UK is the worst in the world and Slovaks living in the UK are agreeing. Well, it is not really that way, is it?
Let´s talk about my personal view.
The way it works in Slovakia is that doctors will usually give you antibiotics for everything which means that the person is losing its immune system. From the early childhood I was very ill. My immune system weakened because of the antibiotics I was prescribed for every illness. For cold, flu, sore throat, etc. And it also resulted in the weakening of my tooth enamel. When I stopped visited doctors, around the age of 12, I stopped being ill. I ate fruit, vegetable, drunk lots of tea with honey and it worked better than antibiotics.
I personally was not directly in the hospital or visiting GP in the UK but my close friends were and I had a chance to go with them. When my friend Sophia did felt down on a street and almost broke her hips, she went to the hospital and they gave her an amazing care.
When Peter had a problem with his stomach and went to the GP, he provided him with pills and he called him for general checks, to see if everything is going well, not the mention how nice the doctors were and how helpful they were. Another case like broken finger or burnt skin – again very good results and the doctor provided them with good pills.
So why Slovaks said the health care in the UK is the worst? Are they used to antibiotics? They cannot lay in the bed with the tea and wait for something to happen. They want to be fit and healthy immediately. Slovaks are very spoiled nation and they are all waiting for immediate results. They hate being sent home when they have flu, cold or cough. They want their usual pills.
When they are coming to see the doctor in the UK with every general illness and small injuries, they are again expecting immediate results. GP do not want to sent them home without any advice or just tell them “eat fruit and drink tea” so he is prescribing basic pills containing paracatemol.
People go to see the doctor with everything. They ask for the consultancy and when they do not get what they want to (in this case antibiotics), they swear. Also, many times their use of English is not very good and the doctors in the UK do not understand what they want or what they are saying, which is resulting in the frustration and again, people are swearing and blaming the NHS.