I was halfway through your comment and wondered which country this would be. Well, hello fellow Dutchie.
Since my father's death, I say In the Netherlands, doctors only start acting when you are dying.
My father's GP let him die of acute leukemia, guessing his severe tiredness had something to do with an onset of diabetes. It was not a single visit. Had no bloodwork done. GP claimed to be specialized in geriatrics. My father was 63.
About a day after his last visit my mom took him to the ER, which did bloodwork, and a couple of days later he died ( they tried an emergency chemo ).
I'm very sorry to hear that your father died a preventable death.
I'm currently in a Dutch hospital, recovering from an (attmpted, they ended up leaving it inside me, can't fully explain why) appendectomy. From calling the after hours huisarts number with a stomach ache to being on the operating table was less than 24 hours for me. The hospital stay have been amazing and I doubt I would have had such prompt treatment back in Canada.
But I have also had to argue with the receptionist for over 10 minutes to be able to speak with my GP here for a consult after I paid for private bloodwork with two critical results and 6 out of normal range... So I feel like it's down to luck here when they decide to take things seriously.
I don't know what happened in your case but the standard of care for simple appendicitis is now to try a course of antibiotics first before a surgical appendectomy.
I'm currently on a course of antibiotics. They said the tissue around the appendix was to infected and they were scared they would rip it and damage something. They are giving me the option to have the appendectomy after I successfully recover with antibiotics but advise against it. I wish we had started with the antibiotics but here we are now.
There is obviously whole medical system for cash paying upper class. That’s why I am trying to have some cash on hand for medical emergency. Few thousand euros can make a difference of 50 years in treatment methods here in Germany. The outcome may be massively better this way. Sadly I learned this lesson the hard way.
This is what pisses me off about public medicine. If you're going to provide a service that's so bad I have to save for a private doctor anyway, why in the hell am I paying so much in taxes towards it? Out of the goodness of my heart for others (so they can also receive shitty care)?
And yeah the dying comment is 100% true for Denmark too. The doctors have no clue about what preventative treatment is and will just let it fester into something more serious they're forced to treat - diabetes is a huge example of this.
From personal experience, I was left waiting for a testicular cancer biopsy for over a year. After the operation I found out if I did have cancer there was a high chance the biopsy would've caused it to progress much more rapidly (as opposed to other methods of checking). So great you let the cancer grow in my nuts for a year, and then you make it more aggressive? wtf?? Thankfully I was diagnosed cancer free.
We pay a lot of taxes for healthcare insurance, and the primary level of healthcare is totally fscked. When the employer has to deduct the insurance from your paycheck, even goddamn cent is double checked by the government... when your primary care physician quits/dies/retires, well, "sorry, there are no doctors taking new patients in your area". Further away? Nope. Somewhere finally a new doctor starts and accepts new patients... this: https://images.24ur.com/media/images/1106xX/Sep2024/5916255a... (yes, this is the line of people without a primary doctor trying to get one).
So, fever, general unwell feeling... could be a flu.. could be bacterial.. probably just a flu.. or a cold... it's always just a cold.. but are you sure? You could go to a private doctor, pay for the checkup, pay for the blood work, but will you pay if it's probaby just a cold/flu?
Feeling really bad and also start vomiting + diarrhea? Go to the only place where you can get checked out fast... the emergency room... and then emergency protocols have to be implemented there, because there are too many people there, and they can't handle it.
Since my father's death, I say In the Netherlands, doctors only start acting when you are dying.
My father's GP let him die of acute leukemia, guessing his severe tiredness had something to do with an onset of diabetes. It was not a single visit. Had no bloodwork done. GP claimed to be specialized in geriatrics. My father was 63.
About a day after his last visit my mom took him to the ER, which did bloodwork, and a couple of days later he died ( they tried an emergency chemo ).