What a way to spend my hols

I came to Spain for a long awaited month long holiday. After being here a week I ended up at the hospital and 8 hours later  after lots of x rays, ultrasound  and scan was being operated on and then spent 10 days sampling the delights of the Spanish health service. The hospital accepted my E111 card and I can't complain about the speed with which I was treated. The aftercare nursing was not so good and the food was terrible! The language was a problem but fortunately for us a cleaner saw this and offered to translate as she had lived in the US for 20 years, she was a great help and came several times to help us out. 3 days after discharge I went to the local clinic to have the stiches out, it was a shambolic place with smokers blocking the entrance door but I have to say I am making a good recovery and feel very satisfied with the treatment I received. In fact it seems my problem had started a long time ago and not picked up by my GP in the UK who did not do any tests, something the Spanish doctors raised their eyebrows about.

So it's really better not to be ill, but if you are unfortunate to have something go wrong you can expect to receive good treatment.

Regards, Poppyseed

My daughter also received excellent care at Huercal Overa hospital

Snapped her Achilles tendon on the beach and within 2 &1/2 hours had an operation which has been a success

She is a GP and was given a choice of operation; the standard English one or the one  they do in Spain [ developed in USA] , which cuts the likelihood of reoccurrence down to 2% instead of 15 % for the NHS normal operation

And a quicker recovery

She took the Spanish route

Only in for one meal but she said it was good

Also had good attention and care at the local clinics but they are more relaxed than ours

Also done on EHIC although they started to treat her before we produced it

A bit of a language problem but I guess if a Spaniard found themselves in a NHS hospital, no one would speak Spanish!!

There is a different expectation culture in the Spanish system but that it to be expected as we are different nationalities with different histories but they seem to produce the goods and there does not appear to be a fear of infection ,which we have in the NHS

Certainly, if you intend to live in Spain , then you should make some effort to get by in Spanish if only for health care reasons - perhaps have the relevant phrases ready just in case!

In the same way, if a Spaniard comes to live in UK, they would have immense problems if they did not learn English!!

For me, well shortly I shall be spending much more time in the locality and I am happy that I will be near a good hospital...just in case! 

Oh dear, that wasn't much of a holiday then!

In Spanish hospitals they expect relatives to do much of the aftercare.  Families are there to feed and look after those in hospitals, which is probably why they don't bother too much with the food as most Spanish families will take food in.  I think this is a problem for expats as most of us don't have any family here.

Anyway, glad to hear you are making a good recovery and hope you managed to enjoy the rest of the holiday!

Justin