Experience with Finnish public side doctor..

[madamekira]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to post here my experience and see if others had dealt with the same. I found it a bit of a shock in the difference to how I was treated, so that left me wondering..

A little bit of backstory, I have gone to private side a couple times, each time being with a very nice doctor at Mehiläinen, but it got to be a little more expensive than we could afford so we switched to public side. My very first visit was not with an actual doctor, but a...nurse practitioner of sorts? Anyways, she was quite friendly, no issues at all, and I felt like a valued person.

My next visit that was today, however, was very strange. While the doctor wasn't unfriendly per se, she was very much hurried in every way, maybe even a little frazzled. She was very twitchy, moving around, and just generally seemed to be very anxious overall. We sat down and she got right to it, asking what I was in for. I mentioned there were several things to speak on, and immediately she tells me, "We don't have time for all this, I only need to hear the most pressing," to which I thought.. It's all very pressing and important, hence my appointment here! (Which I had to wait a month to get the appt. in the first place..) Throughout the appt., she continued to hurry me along, remarking more than once how there was little time to speak on everything, that we only had time for the main issue.. I just felt as though the woman didn't really care, I suppose, like I was just another number to be ushered in and out as soon as possible. I somewhat had to put my foot down to speak on the other issues, and even then 'we ran out of time' before I could talk about everything.

Now, I have been to many doctors in the US, some better than others, but even the worst of them have never physically told me, 'we need to hurry up and get you out of here', basically. I have been told that this is fairly common, for Finnish (public side) doctors to be very much in a hurry.. Is this true? I suppose I'm just very worried I won't get the service I need, and the issues I spoke on are quite serious. Should things not work out with this doctor, is there anything I can do to potentially see someone else? Or maybe just that nurse practitioner again?

Also, I was ordered to have many tests done, and she said it would be a month before the results were in? That seems a long time to me, given back in the US, at most it would be 2 weeks or so absolute max. These are just typical run of the mill bloodworks and such.

Thank you for your time and thoughts.

[rinso]

she said it would be a month before the results were in? That seems a long time to me,

It's nearly X-mas. long holidays, only emergency services.

[madamekira]

Ah, okay - that explains it then! I didn't really consider the holidays.

[Keravalainen]

Hi!
To be able to make a fair comparison, would like to know how many times have you visited a doctor in the US using the Public Healthcare.
- - Are you really comparing experiences from Finnish public healthcare with the public healthcare in the U.S. ?

[Alex.Sm]

Hi!
To be able to make a fair comparison, would like to know how many times have you visited a doctor in the US using the Public Healthcare.
- - Are you really comparing experiences from Finnish public healthcare with the public healthcare in the U.S. ?

Spot on!

As I made some comments previously, the ones that are screaming and complaining here in Finland are us, foreigners!

[Upphew]

Granted, public health care deals better with acute stuff, not something that can (and it will!) wait for a month. Very pressing and important...

For the op: the doctor was a bit jerk in my opinion. But you get what you pay for. And it is the public side that has to deal with emergency duty and they just can't stretch the appointment times, if they want to empty the queue. Mehiläinen is open about 7-20 or something along those lines, then the doctors go to sleep. Public side gets to deal with the night shift.
So I'd give the doctor a 2nd chance and ask for a new one if the chemistry isn't there then either.

Quoted the op for archiving reasons.

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to post here my experience and see if others had dealt with the same. I found it a bit of a shock in the difference to how I was treated, so that left me wondering..

A little bit of backstory, I have gone to private side a couple times, each time being with a very nice doctor at Mehiläinen, but it got to be a little more expensive than we could afford so we switched to public side. My very first visit was not with an actual doctor, but a...nurse practitioner of sorts? Anyways, she was quite friendly, no issues at all, and I felt like a valued person.

My next visit that was today, however, was very strange. While the doctor wasn't unfriendly per se, she was very much hurried in every way, maybe even a little frazzled. She was very twitchy, moving around, and just generally seemed to be very anxious overall. We sat down and she got right to it, asking what I was in for. I mentioned there were several things to speak on, and immediately she tells me, "We don't have time for all this, I only need to hear the most pressing," to which I thought.. It's all very pressing and important, hence my appointment here! (Which I had to wait a month to get the appt. in the first place..) Throughout the appt., she continued to hurry me along, remarking more than once how there was little time to speak on everything, that we only had time for the main issue.. I just felt as though the woman didn't really care, I suppose, like I was just another number to be ushered in and out as soon as possible. I somewhat had to put my foot down to speak on the other issues, and even then 'we ran out of time' before I could talk about everything.

Now, I have been to many doctors in the US, some better than others, but even the worst of them have never physically told me, 'we need to hurry up and get you out of here', basically. I have been told that this is fairly common, for Finnish (public side) doctors to be very much in a hurry.. Is this true? I suppose I'm just very worried I won't get the service I need, and the issues I spoke on are quite serious. Should things not work out with this doctor, is there anything I can do to potentially see someone else? Or maybe just that nurse practitioner again?

Also, I was ordered to have many tests done, and she said it would be a month before the results were in? That seems a long time to me, given back in the US, at most it would be 2 weeks or so absolute max. These are just typical run of the mill bloodworks and such.

Thank you for your time and thoughts.

[interleukin]

I have had both good & bad experiences from both the private and public health care systems. I've had a doctor at Mehiläinen showing up late, being stressed out and visibly annoyed at me when I had to ask about the workflow after my doctor´s visit. If you get a foreigner coming to your office, you shouldn´t allow yourself to show your irritation if that person doesn´t know the Finnish system. I called Mehiläinen up later that day and got all the required info from the helpful lady at the switchboard. At other times, Mehiläinen has been great & no waiting times (that´s why people go there). I´ve mainly had good experiences at the public doctor´s the main problem is getting an appointment at all. I think in the public system, which health care center you´re going to can make a huge difference (their workload, budget, the general health level of their patients, etc).

To the OP: I´d suggest just trying again, and making sure you don´t get the same doctor this time.

[Karhunkoski]

There is also a chronic shortage of doctors in many areas of Finland and some health centres are desperate to recuit anyone... Of course this doctor might just have had a bad day, received some bad family news or just heard there's nobody to cover their Christmas Day shift. Nobody is perfect.

[Flossy1978]

I've never used the public system for other than giving birth and having spine surgery. Always used private.

But I do know for instance where I live you see the doctor under which your postcode falls.

That's how it is where I live. You have no choice I guess. But maybe other "kunta" are different.

[interleukin]

A tip to the foreigners in Helsinki that may be able to get by in Swedish, there are Swedish-language health care centers. Registering at one of those can be a way to get away from your other health care center and (depending on a lot of things) maybe get shorter queue times.

[Rip]

A tip to the foreigners in Helsinki that may be able to get by in Swedish, there are Swedish-language health care centers. Registering at one of those can be a way to get away from your other health care center and (depending on a lot of things) maybe get shorter queue times.

You don't need to speak Swedish for that. You're legally allowed to switch your health care center within your home municipality (every where in the country), and starting from next year even across the municipal borders in the capital region. The switch can be done once a year, and if you want to do it across
the city border you should inform about it about three weeks before you start using the new one. You may also ask to get assigned to specific doctor at you health care center (obviously it won't work if work loads would come too unbalanced)
Further info (in Finnish):
http://www.hel.fi/hki/sote/fi/uutiset/t ... an+valinta
http://www.hel.fi/hki/Terke/fi/Uutiset/ ... a+neuvolan

[interleukin]

Yeah, I know you don't NEED to speak Swedish, but the point is to provide care in Swedish so I guess you'd be more popular if you can use it.

[onkko]

Yeah, I know you don't NEED to speak Swedish, but the point is to provide care in Swedish so I guess you'd be more popular if you can use it.

With new laws there is nothing tying need for anything.
Like in border if 10 of 10 000 000 are swedish everyone needs to speak swedish and in new areas its irrelevant if you see one swedish speaker in your 50 years you have to speak it.....

[priki]

Public side doctors have only about 20min per patient, including welcoming and writing notes. So if you stay there longer, you are 'stealing' time from the next patient. If you have several issues, try to book double time, or use private.
In addition, based on what I've heard, there are no social skills requirements in medical schools, and no training of how to deal with people. During the past few days I've heard quite 'interesting' experiences about Finnish doctors. Not looking you in the eye, talking to their computer including punctuation marks, using weird third person passive tenses...

[atas]

This is how it is in my home country, with the duration aspect. Doctors have only 15 mins per patient. Of course, since this is not realistic they usually take more time. I don't know how they manage to keep up (overtime?). This didn't actually matter to them, as they maintain a private practice as well (it's legal in their case), and some (most?) of these patients are potential customers. The real charm is when they send you for an examination like an X-ray. Of course, they want to assess the result, but it wouldn't be practical to wait another month for that by going the standard route booking an appointment. So, they say, "come by in a few days without an appointment", as a convention. So, you have a double queue forming: the "official" one of first-time appointments and the "unofficial" one of those recently visited with an examination in hand. So, everyday in rush hour you have charming scenes of negotiations, arguments, staring contests and I even heard stories of fist-fighting and threats with knives (in the rougher parts of town), with the doctor playing the role of the ad-hoc arbitrator for deciding the next in line. But, yes, every patient gets a thorough service...