Chile Forum

More like hype to move more flu vaccine product (again).

This sounds like what we are recovering from. Sure, now they tell us.

its a pr thing for the government nothing more,

unfortunately chilean culture dictates that you must go to the doctor as soon as you think you might be getting sick, not if your actually sick and need a doctor, so the medical systems become over crowded

zer0nz wrote:its a pr thing for the government nothing more,

unfortunately chilean culture dictates that you must go to the doctor as soon as you think you might be getting sick, not if your actually sick and need a doctor, so the medical systems become over crowded

Common event at my Suegra's house:

Me: My throat tickles...

Suegra: OMG YOU NEED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR. QUICK, TAKE THESE PILLS THAT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY DO!!! Oh, you have a cold? That's a virus, so YOU SHOULD TOTALLY TAKE THESE ANTIBIOTICS FOR 1.5 DAYS. Totally helps.

Me: I'll.... just drink some water and take a nap... maybe some cazuela later?

I had a recent tour of some hospitals in both the south and the central region. yea, public hospitals are overloaded (nothing new during flue season). Private hospitals were really busy in the central region, but still moving along.

Most gringos are not going to have a reason to hang in line at a public hospital, any time of the year unless they live in a rural area where all there is a public hospital. We made a stop at the small local public hospital in Frutillar (kind of think of it as a first aid station, more than a hospital). The wait was 30 mins at 7 pm at night (everyone getting off work, thus time to go to the hospital hour), so we opted to go to the hospital in Puerto Varas which is like 20 mins away. We are talking 10 mins, mas o menos difference. I had been to that public hospital the day before with an ear infection, and got seen in 5 mins. Puerto Varas hospital had like 3 other people in the emergency room, one or two relatives wondering the waiting room outside. Not exactly a national emergency.

By the way, even a long wait at a crappy public hospital emergency room in Chile with just the flue generally still gets you to see a doctor faster than rolling in a U.S. emergency room with a gun shot wound (and unlimited insurance). So, the "crisis" is pretty relative.

I call it Chilean over reaction to a bad outbreak of the sniffles, and total intolerance for any sort of pain. 3/4th of the people likely do not even need to be at the hospital.

wiscondinavian wrote:

zer0nz wrote:its a pr thing for the government nothing more,

unfortunately chilean culture dictates that you must go to the doctor as soon as you think you might be getting sick, not if your actually sick and need a doctor, so the medical systems become over crowded

Common event at my Suegra's house:

Me: My throat tickles...

Suegra: OMG YOU NEED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR. QUICK, TAKE THESE PILLS THAT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY DO!!! Oh, you have a cold? That's a virus, so YOU SHOULD TOTALLY TAKE THESE ANTIBIOTICS FOR 1.5 DAYS. Totally helps.

Me: I'll.... just drink some water and take a nap... maybe some cazuela later?

My daughter had a fever one Monday morning, threw up and went back to sleep. When my Nana arrived I told her, so she would be quiet while cleaning. She looked alarmed and asked whether I would be taking her to a clinica. Huh? Her body is fighting the "whatever it is" by throwing up, having a fever and going to sleep!

wiscondinavian wrote:Common event at my Suegra's house:

Me: My throat tickles...

Suegra: OMG YOU NEED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR. QUICK, TAKE THESE PILLS THAT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY DO!!! Oh, you have a cold? That's a virus, so YOU SHOULD TOTALLY TAKE THESE ANTIBIOTICS FOR 1.5 DAYS. Totally helps.

Me: I'll.... just drink some water and take a nap... maybe some cazuela later?

Your experience with the MIL is all too familiar with me.

Speaking of this alert in particular... My 3 month year old daughter has just spent the last month in the UPCP at the CSM with RSV complications. In just about every room there was someone with RSV and an associated complication. I think if you are in a high risk category it makes sense to be careful and it's probably responsible government to make these types of announcements. It's comforting that they plan for these type of events, even if it's just a bit of tokenism.

I have no idea what the public hospitals were like, but the Santa Maria seemed like it was swamped. Waiting times of a few hours in A&E. That said, clearly urgent cases could just bypass the queues, as did my daughter.

Unfortunately it seemed like by being in the clinic you were more at risk of contracting some other virus, so even the clinic/hospital isn't the place to be either it would seem. There were parents complaining that their babies had become ill with RSV after having arrived at the clinic with some other minor ailment.

ingrambr wrote:

wiscondinavian wrote:Common event at my Suegra's house:

Me: My throat tickles...

Suegra: OMG YOU NEED TO GO TO THE DOCTOR. QUICK, TAKE THESE PILLS THAT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY DO!!! Oh, you have a cold? That's a virus, so YOU SHOULD TOTALLY TAKE THESE ANTIBIOTICS FOR 1.5 DAYS. Totally helps.

Me: I'll.... just drink some water and take a nap... maybe some cazuela later?

Your experience with the MIL is all too familiar with me.

Speaking of this alert in particular... My 3 month year old daughter has just spent the last month in the UPCP at the CSM with RSV complications. In just about every room there was someone with RSV and an associated complication. I think if you are in a high risk category it makes sense to be careful and it's probably responsible government to make these types of announcements. It's comforting that they plan for these type of events, even if it's just a bit of tokenism.

I have no idea what the public hospitals were like, but the Santa Maria seemed like it was swamped. Waiting times of a few hours in A&E. That said, clearly urgent cases could just bypass the queues, as did my daughter.

Unfortunately it seemed like by being in the clinic you were more at risk of contracting some other virus, so even the clinic/hospital isn't the place to be either it would seem. There were parents complaining that their babies had become ill with RSV after having arrived at the clinic with some other minor ailment.

santa maria is as close to a public hospital you can get for a private hospital........ the waiting times are very long, its always full, its very unprofessional to deal with, and your treated as a number....

just my opinion after spending more than 12 hours in there waiting rooms with family members!,

and every time i say, why the hell did you come here!

clinica alemana... non urgent.... no more than 45 minutes wait......

My partner is an ER doctor here in Antofagasta and he estimates 80-90% of the people he sees have a cold. It frustrates the hell out of him, women coming in with their kids "he's got a runny nose and a cough and a fever since this morning, what could it be?" "he's got a cold, go home and rest!" He says it's especially frustrating when it's their 2nd or third child, or even grandchild, and they STILL can't tell the signs for a cold, or recognize that traipsing to the ER and sitting in a waiting room for hours is going to actually make things worse.
As someone above says, all the media is probably just a way to make more money in visits to doctors and flu vaccines.