Need a gastroenterologist? Pay 3 or wait … 442 days [LETTER TO EDITORIAL]

Record inflation and rising prices are hitting ordinary Poles more and more. This applies not only to the cost of food, fuel and utilities, but also to medical services and drugs. MedTvoiLokona was sent a letter from a reader who suffered from gastric ailments and had to use the more expensive private health care to diagnose the problem. Reason? He would have to wait … 15 months for an appointment under the National Health Fund. We publish the reader’s letter in its entirety below.

1. A man with intestinal disease in remission began to experience severe ailments that forced him to consult a gastroenterologist
2. Pain, persistent symptoms and a strict diet weakened him so much that in a month he lost almost 7 kg; he was also so weak that he even passed out once
3. Not only drugs were necessary, but also detailed laboratory and endoscopic examinations
4. The reader paid over PLN 2 for the colonoscopy and gastroscopy alone. zloty
5. Why did he not come to the NHF clinic? It turned out that the first appointment at the gastroenterologist is April 2023. The tests could be performed in a month and a half, but he needed a referral from a specialist.
6. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

“The prices are knocking off my feet”

You’ve been writing a lot lately about rising prices. Electricity, gas, fuel are more expensive, butter and many other products are more expensive, without which it is difficult to function on a daily basis. A bit like with health, or rather its lack. How does it fail, must be repaired, and how is it repaired? Going to the doctor, then for tests and to the pharmacy. There, the prices are also a blast. Just like the fact that we should have the same, as some say, “for free”, that is at the National Health Fund. First things first.

At the end of November, I started to experience severe gastrointestinal complaints. I have ulcerative colitis but the disease has been in remission for many years, so I suspected something had recovered. I went to the pharmacy, I bought over-the-counter medications that have so far helped me with this type of symptom. For a probiotic, an anti-diarrheal drug, an antibacterial product recommended to me by my pharmacist, and for allergy pills, which always get worse with inflammation, I paid PLN 75 with pennies. Effect? No.

My stomach hurt more and more, I was suffering from diarrhea, I could not work and eat normally, because virtually every product made my ailments worse. I started to lose weight and weaken, I even fainted once, because how much can you “eat” on yoghurts and dry bread? I was already seriously concerned. Maybe it is something other than “my” disease, something worse? A person close to me died of pancreatic cancer, I had the right to be afraid. After a week of taking my medications, I decided it was time to consult a gastroenterologist and do some tests.

I was aware that it might not be possible to get it right away, but I had to try. After all, who wants to throw away two or three hundred coins on a few minutes’ visit?

1. See also: Here are the worst bowel diseases

There were over 800 people waiting to see a gastroenter at the National Health Fund

The first phone call (to one of the gastroenterological clinics in Krakow) pushed me into my armchair. Waiting time for the visit: 442 days. Over 800 people lined up. Okay, I think, keep trying. From the next five clinics on the list, I was able to call one. First available appointment date: in four months. Oh, I’ll be exhausted sooner. In an internet search engine, I checked the situation in clinics where calling is almost a miracle. Lead time: from 150 to 320 days.

1. How long do you have to wait for an appointment with a specialist at the National Health Fund? We check

Okay, okay, I’ll go privately, I thought. I found the phone number for the doctor I visited a few years ago. Even if it becomes more expensive, I will survive two hundred dollars. Two, yes, but as much as I paid in total for the treatment of my ailments, however, severely damaged my budget.

The gastrologist turned out to be cheaper than I thought. He paid PLN 150 for his visit and he even made an ultrasound of my abdomen. Unfortunately, the study did not give a clear answer as to what is wrong with me. It was known that the intestines were in a deplorable condition and that there was some kind of inflammation. A strict diet is required until the delivery. The basis of nutrition: rice and banana puree, possibly a baked or boiled apple. I got a prescription for an antibiotic and a new probiotic (PLN 111) and recommendations for tests to be performed to determine the cause of the ailment.

1. See also: Intestinal diseases – how to recognize them and how to treat them?

That it would not be so easy and pleasant, in addition to the standard morphology, very detailed stool tests, the results of which I waited two weeks. Plus urine, ESR, CRP, white blood cells, liver tests, cholesterol, parasite antibodies, and finally, what made me feel cold, amylase, lipase and a tumor marker. Cancer had to be ruled out. PLN 652 on the receipt.

The rest of the text is below the video.

Without 2, but with a diagnosis

With the results, I returned to the gastroenterologist (another PLN 150), who said that it looked like a relapse. He prescribed drugs that I used to take (PLN 154, because from a private doctor, so all without a lump sum). To confirm the initial diagnosis, he ordered a colonoscopy and gastroscopy, preferably simultaneously. I froze because I had already undergone both examinations once and I wished that I would not have to repeat it quickly, and certainly not “alive”. The doctor warned me that the terms at the National Health Fund were very long and that I should not count on any other anesthesia than local anesthesia. I decided to check anyway.

I would have to wait from 43 to 204 days for a colonoscopy at the National Health Fund in Krakow, for a gastroscopy – from 50 to 249 days. That is a minimum of one and a half months, and there is no chance of a double test. Okay, then I’ll check it out in private, I thought. The prices cannot be cosmic. Recently, a friend paid about PLN 600 for head resonance, it will not be more expensive.

A nice lady from a private clinic answered one ring each. Yes, of course it is possible to do both tests during the same visit. As much as possible under anesthesia. Waiting time: one week. Expense? 1 thousand 440 PLN.

1. See also: Colonoscopy – how to prepare for the procedure? [WE EXPLAIN]

Ultimately a month after the first visit to the gastroenterologist, fed up with pain, hunger and fatigue, thinning by almost 7 kg, I signed up for a private colonoscopy and gastroscopy. It was quick, painless and courteous. Together with taking samples and testing for Helikobacter pylori 2 thousand. PLN 080.

The diagnosis was confirmed, and the medications prescribed by the gastroenterologist turned out to be effective. Now treatment and control.

«I am terrified of what the future will look like»

Why am I writing all this to you? Well, to show that a man standing against the wall – i.e. unable to work and function normally due to pain and unpleasant ailments – it is basically left to itself. If he can afford private health care, he’s lucky – he will get to the doctor immediately for specialist examinations, buy drugs and he will probably recover quickly. If there is no money, may not even wait for the first visit to a specialist, because he will die of pain or hunger. Or both.

1. Also read: Medical insurance – types, advantages, disadvantages, formalities and price

However, what depresses me the most is the fact that if this happens to me again (hopefully not), I may not be able to afford such a set of private consultations, tests and medications. Everything I had to spend money on became more expensive. Laboratory tests and drugs for a few zlotys per piece, which gives the amount of several dozen zlotys “in the back”. Endoscopic examinations increased by PLN 400 during the year. Only my gastroenterologist did not travel. I was lucky, because I know from my friends that they now pay even 300 zlotys for visits to specialists. 300 PLN!

I have already spent over 3,3 thousand zlotys on diagnosing and treating my intestinal ailments. zloty. And this is when you are insured, entitled to use the public health service. When I saw how the health insurance premium would increase from the new year under the Polish Deal, I felt sick. I am supposed to pay sick money to the health service, which in a situation when I need it the most, I cannot use it because I will not live to see a doctor? As an entrepreneur, running a business in this country, but also a patient, citizen, husband and father, I am terrified of what the future will look like – Poland, mine, my family. Where is all this going?

Also read:

1. This is how the coronavirus works on the intestines. Pocovid irritable bowel syndrome
2. DNA catalog of the inhabitants of our intestine
3. The seven foods that stay in your intestines the longest
4. Hypnosis will heal the intestines

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