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Published: June 16th 2009
As I moved back to Romania after living abroad for a long time and experiencing very different life-styles, from the conservative and deeply religious Turkish culture to the warm, laid-back South-American one and then the world-renowned ,highly organised and planned out English life-style, I find myself now in the position to pass some informed judgement on the Romanian society. I returned in December 2008 thinking to keep an open mind and expect .... well, not the worst, but just takee into account that things would be ...hm...slightly different. I said to myself that it was totally a matter of personal choice and that if I genuinely wanted to return to Romania, I shouldn't go back with a negative attitude. 'Keep an open mind! ' I kept saying to myself.
I never liked England much because of the weather which is truly demoralising and because I found people cold, self-absorbed, selfish and money-driven. Sorry, it's a 100% personal opinion and am not generalising. I'm aware that a big metropolis like London is a very demanding place to live in, just like any other hectic European capital, so in a way these traits are not justifiable, but somehow understandable. Anyways, now, after
having lived in Romania for 6 months, I am utterly disappointed and can't believe how ugly, disgusting, money-grabbing country Romania has become.
Everything and everybody in Romania is corrupted. In government-run, public offices desined to deal with public enquiries and offer various services, the administrative body made sure to put up signs saying ' In this office no hush money is accepted'! In state offices dealing with administrative paperwork- Police, Finance, Passports, etc!!! It simply cracks me up!!! And you know what the funny thing is? I needed a piece of paper stating that between 2004 -2009 I didn't live in Romania, so I had no income from any sort of Romanian institution, a stupid piece of paper that usually takes a week to be issued, as the clerks need to verify and run this info through different financial departments. As my paretns insisted on having it done on that day, I took thier advice and gently pushed a small amount of money in front of the clerk. This is nothing but Bribery /Hush Money and it got me the stupid paper on the spot!!! Of course, on the office window it stated clearly : ' In this office
no hush money is accepted!' as in any other office. Where is the morality of this story? Should I be happy that I ducked all the bureaucracy and the stupid paperwork and got the paper right then and there or should I be frustrated that this corruption proliferates from the upper classes to the smallest clerks? The answer is damn easy: a good data system would make any kind of information ready and available for the population at any time of day or night and just a computer search should be able to provide all the information related to the financial status of any Romanian citizen, thus not having to keep us waiting for weeks and months on end or make us pay up unofficial money to get what we need urgently.
England and Romania are not just two different countries in terms of lifestyle and culture, it's actually more like talking about two different planets, it's Venus and Mars, the Sun and the Moon! I would like now to comment on a topic that unfortunately is very familiar to me - health and the health system in Romania. I had the bad luck to be born with a congenital heart disease. Meaning that my heart wasn't getting enough oxygen from birth and a series of health problems sprang from this. So unfortunately I did spend a large part of my life - especially my childhood, in hospitals and seeing doctors.
Last year I had a different problem, which turned out to be an infection in the occipital area of my brain. It was not endocarditis, that means that it didn't actually have anything to do with my heart problem, it had a totally other source of infection and was of unknown nature. The point I'm trying to make is that I was treated by the finest neurological surgeons and consultants from London, was admitted in the hospital twice, each time for 2 weeks and had 2 brain surgeries performed together with heaps of blood tests, MRI, CT scans, so on and so on. I had to stay under close supervision and return for regular check-ups as an outpatient as well. And let me share with you the joys of having a surgery in a London hospital: people do their job professionally and look after you 100%. You don't need to pay any money for people to be nice to you, they are trained to do their job with professionalism and offer the best care possible, and financially they don't expect any gain from the patients, as they are in a job and get paid for their services!!
I am saying this as I went back to Romania and carried on with seeing a cardiologist and seeing a neurologist and each time I went to the doctors in my country I had to go with my pockets loaded with money and pay what I call hush money or bribe just to keep them happy. I'm sure you don't understand what I'm talking about and you're probably at this point frowning, saying to yourselves that this sounds absolutely RIDICULOUS!!!!. Ok, I'll take it step by step. I am medically insured. I pay each month a medical insurance that should cover my appointments, tests, check-ups. But each time I go to see my doctor I leave an envelope with about £20 ( obviously Romanian money) just for their trouble to see me. If I have 3 tests done on one day, I give each nurse the equivalent of £2-4 just so that I'll get the result on the same day, as I travel to Bucharest for all these check-ups and don't want to return the following day to get the results and see the doctor. Because you see, THAT is another stupid, absolutely stupid Romanian bureaucracy snag. In the UK I had many tests done and NEVER had to take home Xrays or EKGs or other medical files, they were all computer-based saved in the medical system and there is a file bearing my name where they keep all the information about my condition, with dates, appointments, tests, everything that ever happened to me from a medical point of view is kept on file. I don't take it home wiht me, WHY would I????? Am I a doctor to know what it says, to read the information, to need it at all??? In my dear country I keep my own test results, there is no record or file on me in any hospital or computer, I keep piling them up at home, God knows why!!!
On my complaining list there is another extremely annoying and frustrating problem: APPOINTMENTS. The government-funded medical system in Romania has NEVER heard of appointments. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? In a so-called modern 21st century European society, part of the EU, the state medical system has NO knowledge appointments. During my stay in Romania, from January to June 2009 I had to go to Bucharest to Cardiology on several occasions. Each time I'd call the hospital for an appointment and all they'd give me was a date. ONLY a date. Come on the 7th. Come on the 15th. No time. Do you know how it works? We - my parents and I - had to be there starting 8am to queue up in order to get a list of the tests I was meant to be subjected to and then after having all that done, we would queue up at the doctor's door again. Usually we would be number 10 or 15 in a long waiting list of about 30 patients (on a good day!!), all waitng for the doctor who had no more than 2 hours available to see all of us!!!! Very often the doctor was way too busy with emergencies or checking on inpatients and didn't have time to show up until 4-5pm. Needless to say that this stupid no-appointment system puts a strain on poor patients that are ill and in dire need of medical help, the last thing they need is to wait for what seems like forever for a doctor to show up and give them treatment and hope that tomorrow will be a better day.
I guess that's the downside of having very few good doctors as there is a huge shortage of specialist doctors in Romania. Consequently, the ones looking after inpatients, seeing outpatients and performing surgeries are overworked and overused. Unfortunately a GP has the same incapacity to set appointments. I called my GP several times and apart from the fact that they don't have receptionists or secretaries to assist them, I always got the same answer: ''I'm at the office from 9am'', which meant in fact: Come any time starting 9am. So on arrival, you need to queue up and wait for your turn, as the concept of appointment is foreign in Romania.
So I can honestly say that it's not Brits who like to queue up, it's Romanians. Brits do it civilised, in shops and post offices and where there is no more than a few minutes waiting and common sense dictates what do to. In the UK when you go to your GP, you've got a date and a time, 10 minutes allocated for your problem and everybody respects each other's time. Because it is definitively a matter of respect!! Every time I had an appointment in London, if it said 10.25am on my letter, there was definitively somebody ready to see me at 10.25am. I clearly remember how once my GP tried to contact me 1 day before an appointment as she had to cancel it and rang my phone 3 times and left 3 voice mails just to make sure I was aware that she couldn't see me. She apologised politely for the short notice and asked me courteously to confirm that I had got her voice mail and was going to reschedule. Again, it is a matter of respect. Respect for my time. The same storey happened to me in Romania. I called my GP and asked when I could see her. She said 'You can find me on Friday starting 8am'. I woke up early and drove to the Surgery, entered and was thrilled to see there were no patients before me! At least that's what I thought! I knocked on th door only to realise it was locked and there was nobody in. Another doctor from a near-by office came out and told me 'The doctor's got a problem and can't make it today.' No apologies, no nothing. I thought I was going to go ballistic. THIS WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED IN THE UK!!! Luckily I wasn't working and didn't have to take a day off from work. But what if I was??? What about the rest of the people??? Where is the respect for my time, for me getting up early to come with a problem and see the doctor?? It is just unbelievable and makes you sick! sick! I had even bought her flowers and a pack of coffee, which in Romania is quite a common 'gift' to offer your GP or doctor seeing you.
Ok, so let's recap now! Romania has got no appointment system, you just show up and queue up for endless hours till you get your turn. You ALWAYS always need to pay a bribe to the doctor just because they have the courtesy to see you, even if you, obviously pay your taxes, contributions, blah-blah medical insurance.
Thank God I had all my surgeries in Germany and in England, I never had a surgery in Romania!! And you know what I got the doctor that operated me last year???? A 'THANK YOU' card! That's right! A 'THANK YOU ' card. In Romania such a surgery would have cost heaps of money. People die in Romania because they don't have money to pay the doctors to perform surgeries on them. I swear to God I'm not lying, it's the mere truth! Doctors outspokenly ask for the amount of money they wish to charge, illegally, for performing a surgery, depending on the gravity of the patient's situation.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
It hurts to be back in Romania. I wanted to keep an open mind, I did. I even toyed with the idea of giving out bribes and did it in a playful, fun way at the beginning, slipping cash in nurses' and doctors' pockets, but it's just soooo embarrassing!!
I'm writing all of this now as today I had an appointment at the Heart Hospital in London. The appointment was for 2.30pm. I was seen at 2.28am. The doctor was the loveliest person on earth who listened to me and reassured me that I was fine and counselled me on the next steps I need to take regarding my health. And what she told me today left me perplexed. Apparently all the patients with cardiac problems that are in the Hospital's records have their files reviewed periodically and this week they're debating whether they could do anything to help my heart get completely fixed and if a new intervention would help me lead a better, healthier life. I have never asked for such a chance, never thought it possible/doable and never considered it a possibility. It's them who're considering my case and my problems and trying to find a better solution for me. Again, the same question: Can you believe it? I can! Because we're talking about a perfect system, with no holes in it, with responsible and caring people for whom sick people are important. It's their job to look after ill patients and they are certainly doing their best. In Romania all they care about is money, and that's the only thing that comes first, second and last.
I've sadly started to see the downside of living in Romania and my following posts will probably show that even more. It's the sad truth, why embellish, turn a blind eye and ignore this cruel reality?
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Danny
non-member comment
sounds just perfect
It sounds just like the Romania i know....and didn't like...what are your next steps??