So I ended up in hospital...

I thought I would post to let others know my experience of this, especially as I have only been here a few weeks and was unsure what to expect. Sorry in advance for the novel

First of all I will say that I am fine now and it all seems like it was a bad case of food poisoning, however I had good and bad experiences within the health care system. I started with a relatively mild sore stomach one evening (about 6pm), due to this I decided I couldn't be bothered cooking so I made myself a homemade chip sandwich (not the best idea in hindsight). As the hours passed the pain worsened and I in turn got a bit more concerned. I didn't have any painkillers in the house so thinking it was indigestion I took some milk. By 10pm the pain was becoming unbearable. I had a shower in the hopes the warm water would help. I had horrible pain all around my stomach and back and I couldn't even stand up straight. By 10.30pm I couldn't take it any more and I asked my husband to call the doctor. The doctor said he would come to see me and this took almost 30 minutes which seemed like eternity! He examined me and was pretty sure it was my gallbladder and said I would need to go into hospital by ambulance (GREAT!) However it seemd the doctor gave the ambulance the wrong address, Mrabat instead of Marbat which led to a delay of another 30 minutes by which point I was crawling the floor being sick.

The ambulance arrived and asked what kind of health insurance I had before allowing me into the vehicle. I told them I had my EHIC card which was acceptable. The ride to Mater Dei was horrible as every bump hurt like hell. I arrived and was put into a partitioned emergency room and waited. I waited for another 30 odd minutes when a nurse came to assess me and took a photocopy of my passport and EHIC card. I was given an ECG and a blood test, a history was taken and then a doctor came to examine me. He too thought it was my gallbladder and I began to worry as both my aunt and grandfather had to have their gallbladder removed. At about 2am I was given some painkillers, a saline drip and an anti emetic for my sickness (I was sick another 3 times here)I was told I couldn't eat or drink and was going to be sent for an x-ray. I was bumped out into the corridor as they needed the beds and I wouldn't have minded this, but I was put in the corridor with all the visitors and I felt very self conscious. I was called to the desk on a couple of ocassions which was very awkward as I had no one with me (husband had to stay home to look after our baby) and I was attached to a drip and in pain so it was difficult to say the least. I was sent for an x-ray around 3.30am and then was back in the corridor. A surgeon came to see me and explained the surgical procedure of removing my gallbladder at which point I began to worry. I was given a bed in a ward as they wanted me to have an ultrasound in the morning. I found this strange as it was a mixed ward and there was zero chance of any sleep as the lights were on and people milling about. The staff were really nice and tried their best but there were so many patients.

A lot of the pain had vanished and I lay in bed until about 7am, nil to eat and just waited. The consultant came round about 10am saying he too suspected my gallbladder and said I should have my ultrasound soon. It was 2pm before I got an ultrasound to show that all was clear, no stones, no infection, nothing. The doctor then thought it was a bad case of food poisoning which was on its way to resolving. I was eventually let out at 4.45pm.

A few irritations and they are, I guess, minor ones and I admit I am impatient, was that the process was so slow. I asked about my ultrasound at least once every hour as I was desperate to get home. I know it is none of their concern what your obligations are but I really thought they could have told me approximately when I would get an ultrasound. I was told by the Consultant it would definitely be within the next hour but it was over 3 hours later and at this point I really was thinking of just going home as I was so fed up, not to mention hungry! Another doctor said to me it was impossible to find out when I would get an ultrasound, it could be 10am it could be 9pm (HUH?)It didn't help that I was totally out of my comfort zone and I felt completely isolated. All I wanted to do was go home and recuperate.

The other negative was there were so many members of staff using their mobile phones for personal calls. Some even walked away from patients to take calls which I found concerning. It wasn't just a one off either, countless calls to/from nurses, auxilliarys etc were taken. One nurse actually walked away to take a call on her phone, leaving me with the BP monitor on my arm. It must have malfunctioned as it inflated and would not go down. I ended up calling over another nurse as it was very painful and my arm was going numb. I told her I didn't think it was working. I ended up being left with a bruise but this would have been noticed earlier if the nurse had stayed. Is this common practice in hospital that everyone is allowed to use their mobile phones?

The plus points were they did much more tests than they ever would have in the UK. In the UK I had to beg to get an ultrasound and even then I needed a very good reason. Here I had an ECG, chest and abdo x-ray, pelvic, abdo inc kidney, spleen, aorta, pancreas and gallbladder ultrasound and blood tests. I was very impressed with that and glad to hear all was well.

The other good point was the the hospital was kept very clean. Everywhere I looked someone was cleaning and it was much nicer than the hospital in Aberdeen.

All in all my experience in hospital here as a foreigner without an ID card was overall quite good. There are a few things that could be improved (isn't there always) but the main things were dealt with and no stone was left unturned. I didn't walk away thinking they should have checked something, put it that way!

Anyway I just wanted to post my experience to possibly help others who may unfortunately find themselves in a similar situation.