Cashmere Kate

Hi! This is my first post but I've been lurking for a few weeks and reading lots of threads.

I'd like to ask you what you think about the health service over here. It's driving me crazy! I've been here a few years but until now, I've always got my pill prescription from my old GP when I go back to the UK. But, as I'm here permanently, my New Year's resolution was to get myself sorted over here. So...I went to my GP over here (40 minute wait), who told me I had to go for a visita ginecologica. Went to book (10 minute wait). Two weeks before any appointments available. Went for visita this morning (2 HOUR wait!) only to be told I need blood tests and an ultrasound before the doctor could do anything (including a smear test). He wrote a prescription that I have to take to my GP to be turned into a real prescription before I can then book these things. The thing is, I really don't have all this spare time to go around sitting in waiting rooms for hours on end. I'll have to queue for the GP, then queue to book the blood tests and ultrasound, then queue to have the blood tests and ultrasound then make ANOTHER appointment with the gynaecologist with possibly ANOTHER 2 hour wait before I can get the damn prescription!

I understand that the Italians have different routine exams that they consider important before you get the pill. Maybe the Brits are too lax in this. My problem is that it's going to take hours of waiting in queues and weeks of waiting for appointments to get a simple thing sorted!

I spoke to my boyfriend about it (in tears I was so frustrated) and he said to pay to go private but I feel I shouldn't on principle. I pay LOADS of tax and contributions here, so why should I have to go private to get decent service?! On the other hand, at the consultorio this morning 99% of the women were foreigners, which makes me think that Italians must go private.

Sorry for the long rant but I'm so angry this morning! Is the situation the same where you are or is it my city that's like this. Do you go private? Please let me know!

durobird

Am I right in thinking you want the contraceptive pill? If so, I was in the same situation as you....living here permanently and no GP in UK.
I have a GP here in Italy now, so I recently asked him for the Pill. Apparently I can just buy them over the counter for 15 euros. I went to a Pharmacy and bought 3 months supply immediately...no need for a prescription or anything else,you just pay for them.
So go and ask at the pharmacy for yours. Take an old box or packet if you have one just in case they have a different name in Italy. Mine didnt,they were the exact replica of my UK ones.
Let us know how it goes

Cashmere Kate

Gosh, I wouldn't have thought about buying them at the pharmacy! To say the gynaecologist has just told me I need all those tests before he'll even consider prescribing it because "la pillola è una medicina seria, signora", it seems a bit strange. And then I'd have to pay €15 a month for something that should be free? But - I still have to do all the tests before they'll give me a smear test so I may as well get the pill while I'm at it.

durobird

So do you think if you do all these tests etc,you will then get a prescription for FREE Pills? Would you let me know as I may then try that route. thanks.

Cashmere Kate

I just assumed that the contraceptive pill was free. Maybe it isn't. I'll let you know (if I ever get it)!, or maybe someone else will post and tell us.

duffer

After all that palava I'm quite impressed that you have the energies to actually get down and dirty. Smash it!

Isakat

We are lucky that we have private medical insurance so never have to wait although I do feel like a cash cow when I mention the insurance to the doctor/dentist. I can see euro signs rolling in their eyes!
Anyway, I have bought many prescriptions over the counter here, including antibiotics. They really are not supposed to give them out but they do.
Last time when Mil was visiting she forgot her Ampicillin capsules back in the UK. I explained to the chemist what they were for, how old she was and her medical history and got them. Only the pharmacist was a bit bemused why I was asking for this antibiotic when there were many new types with better effect.
After paying for them I knew why the UK GP prescribed them-they only cost 3 euro, so the NHS must be saving by prescribing the cheapest drugs possible.

You can do the test, but while you wait you can also buy the pill over the counter.

Lorna at Vicenza

The pill isn't free here at all even with prescriptions - but it's only about 2 euros a packet or less.

To the OP ... you will only have to do all these tests this one time. The gyno doesn't know you and wants you to have a proper check up. Once you've gone through all these hoops, your GP can prescribe the pill and will continue to do so in the future and you can avoid going back to the gyno. Somewhere along the line somebody will probably check your blood pressure too.

Tip - you can only get 2 packets of the pill on any one prescription so unless you want to be waiting to see your GP every two months - ask for more than one prescription at a time.

Nipping into one or two chemists to see if you can get a packet over the counter isn't a bad idea until you can get all these tests and check ups done.

gelato

The sytem here (like everything in Italy) is loaded down with bureaucracy. However, I've had a major medical emergency, open heart surgery and a 2 month stay in a public hospital and I've also given birth here and I have to say that, all in all, I got really good care. The hospitals are dirty, overcrowded and disorganised but when you're really sick there are some excellent doctors here.

If I were you I'd switch GPs. I used to wait for hours for my old GP but with my new one (who is much better than the old one) I only ever wait 15 minutes or so, if that.

Also - Italian doctors do tend to be ultra-thorough which I think is good but it can sometimes be excessive. I'd ring CUP in your region and see if you can find an ASL ginecologo who doesn't require all those tests just for a visita ( mine doesn't). If you're in Rome I'd recommend Sant'Anna.

IMO private medical insurance is a waste of money here as the best doctors work in the public hospitals anyway and they can only perform very routine procedures in private hospitals. Private hospitals are basically just fancy hotels with private rooms but the really cutting edge medicine is done at the public structures.

linseed oil

i would like to say the hospital in chieti is so clean i would eat of the floor , the wards a cleand fom top to botom twice a day every day and the coridors constantly day and night . the docters are second to none ,they could teach english hospitals a thing or to on the cleanliness front they dont use contract cleaners hence the level of higine .Ihave been in for lung problems 3 weeks my whife 3 weeks a stroke and we cant praise them enugh

ballerina

this was a very interesting post to read as I'm in the situation of finally sorting out residency and doctors. I'm in La Spezia, my husband is from the south but geting his residency here too and he always pays to go private, which I always thought was ridiculous if there is free healthcare! However, if it saves hours and hours of time...

I discovered a few years ago that you can buy asthma inhalers over the counter too, even though the last time I was told I was supposed to have a prescription, but they still sold it to me!!

Also, form my brief experience visiting a doctor here, they LOVE to write a ton of prescriptions for stuff don't they! I had an ear infection and just needed antibiotics, but the doctor gave me a prescription for tachipirina (same as paracetamol isn't it??)ear drops (next to useless), antibiotics and then something else, which was a medicine for children... i.e pointless IMO. Do doctors get a kickback from the chemists for prescribing unnecessary medicine? I mean, what's the point of prescribing tachipirina when a simple painkiller (for 16p from sainsburys! i bring tons over with me) does the same job??

Isakat

I must disagree, private medical insurance is not a waste of money. Ours comes as part of OH's job, so we do not pay for it, but if I had to I would.
The private doctors we use all work during the day in the Italian hospitals, some are eminent university professors who have their private studio medico in the afternoons. OH spent a week in the Rome American Hospital and the care was excellent.
Having babies in private hospitals is a different matter, the hospitals do not have a resident anaesthetist or surgeon, so in case of emergency they take you in an ambulance to the nearest state htl.I avoided all this by giving birth in a state htl but privately with your own room and private gynecologist.

indiebird

I think this is the same in the UK too isn't it?? For some specialist visits and procedures it's much better to go private but for loads of things you're better off in the NHS. I tell you one thing. I am paying for private dental care for me and the kids from now on. My dentist might be quite pricey here but private care is a revelation!

On the subject of getting meds over the counter -when we first arrived I was still on Anti-depressants and hadn't sorted out the healthcare properly. I went into a pharmacy just on the off-chance and, although she told me that they were highly restricted medication, she still sold me some without a prescription. Could you imagine that in the UK??!!

37100

Before retiring hubby had private medical insurance and it was handy, very handy because it covered glasses and dentist, but every time we had a major problem or an emergency we ended up in a state hospital. When our youngest had a nose job the surgeon actually refused our insurance saying that it was needed for medical reasons so he was going to do it on the nhs because that's what we paid taxes for. Hubby also had a stay in a UK hospital and they refused it there too. They just weren't geared to except it.

MrsTeapot

LOL!!!