Swedish healthcare vs. British healthcare

I’m sure by now, no one’s missed out on the fact that I have arthritis. I suffer from AS, previously known as Bectherew’s. With this type of arthritis comes the added prevalence and risk of iritis, an inflammation of the iris (in the eye). This is a most painful condition, and one which I presently suffer from. This is the third time I have it, I had it twice in the end of 2004 and beginning of 2005, when I lived in London. And this is why I can compare the healthcare in Sweden and England, or Stockholm and London to be precise, for this very condition. What’s the service like? How much does it cost? What’s the waiting time like? How are the doctors? Stay tuned and find out…

 

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On December 21st, 2004, I wrote in my diary: “My left eye hurts, and it’s really red”. The following day, my notes say: “Got quite a bit done at work, but my eye kept getting worse, so I eventually went to see an optometrist who immediately said I had iritis and told me to go straight to the Western Eye Hospital. After waiting only a brief moment, the doctor there confirmed the diagnosis, and gave me steroid drops. He also noticed that I had a couple of holes on my retina that he fixed with laser. Bloody scary”.

After that I have no notes on the eye until January 24th, 2005, when I wrote: “My eye sight has become blurred again. I think I might have to go back to the eye hospital tomorrow”. And the following day: “Sweet, so we’re back on square one again. I saw nothing this morning. Cancelled my meetings and went straight to the eye hospital. The inflammation is back, but now much worse. Got an injection in the eye ball, a much stricter drop regime, and twice as strong drops”.

Ok, I immediately admit that I’d completely repressed the memory of that injection - sweet Jesus, that sounds horrible! I shudder at the thought of it…

I had to get a new prescription for drops on Jan 31st, 2005, as I’d run out, and on the 3rd of Feb I was back at the Western Eye Hospital for a check up during which I was told that it looked much better, and that I should give one of the drops up, and jump 10 days forward in the drop regime. And that’s the last note I have on my first bout of irits.

Back home with a diluted pupil after my first hospital visit. Still somewhat cheerful.

Pretty stylish eye-patch, eh?!

This time around I wrote on Jan 30th that my left eye (same as in 2004-5) hurt, and on the 31st that it kept getting worse, so I headed to the emergency room at St Erik’s Eye Hospital. Where I waited for quite some time before I was first shown to a nurse who checked my sight, measured the pressure of the eye, etc. After waiting some more I got to see a doctor who told me he couldn’t confirm that it was iritis, it might just be a virus in which case nothing could be done about it. So, after a total of three hours at the emergeny room I was sent home with the information that it was either a virus, in which case nothing could be done, or possibly the start of iritis in which case it’d get a lot more painful, and if so I could come back then. Gee, thanks.

I have a high threshold for pain, one must when dealing with arthritis, and so being told that I was wrong, that I didn’t have iritis was just about the same as him telling me I was a malingerer, and that’s a terrible insult. So, I strode on, with increasing pain, for another week. Stupid, I know. But I was away with work, cross country skiing over the weekend, so I couldn’t go to the hospital, now could I? Instead I made an eye-patch out of bandaid and covered the bright red eye, and worked hard at keeping my balance, only seeing on one eye.

But yesterday morning I was back at the emergency room – after a night of waking up several times from an eye hurting that bad - a mere three minutes after opening. I told them I’d been there one week ago, and that it’d gotten a lot worse since. Luckily this meant that I got to skip the step with the nurse, and got to meet with a doctor straight away. She immediately said “You have a substantial iritis”, and what’s worse, she also said “unfortunately the iris has grown into/onto the lense”. Well, isn’t that swell? Because it’d been left untreated for a week, it had now gotten a lot worse, and more serious. The iris and pupil attaching itself to the eye’s lense is not good, as it restricts the movement of the pupil.

The doctor said that the “problem” was that we who have had iritis before recognize the symptoms and know that we should seek help immediately, only that we do it so quick that the doctors can’t actually see the iritis yet. Catch 22, no? She gave me a concoction of drops that would hopefully “blow” the pupil free from the iris, and had me sit down and wait for an hour. Unfortunately it didn’t help. Perhaps my crying from anger, helplessness and despair didn’t help, I don’t know. I just felt (and still feel) that life’s a bit unfair. I’ve had a shit start to the year, healthwise, that’s for sure.

Yesterday I did not just look unhappy when I came home, but plain evil too, no?

Before leaving the hospital I had six Interns/students come look at my eye since it was such a beautiful case of iritis and a pupil grown onto the lense, nice. They actually were quite nice though, they laughed at my jokes (why do I always crack jokes when I’m at the doctor’s? Defense mechanism?), patted me on the shoulder and said thank you when they left. I also got an incredibly sticky creme put into my eye; Atropin-kokain. Yes, that second word is cocaine. As close to proper cocaine as I’ll ever come, that’s for sure. I picked up some cortisone drops and a proper eye-patch on my way home, and here I am. Banning the first doctor I saw, with blurred vision and having trouble remembering to take the drops every hour.

So, how do the two healthcare systems compare then? Well, to begin with – I was given help immediately in London, and they threw in some extra laser treatment while I was there, and at what charge? Zero. None. It was free. And the prescriptions cost £6.80, regardless of what they were for. Here at home I was told there was nothing wrong with my eye, after three hours, which led to a more serious condition. And each visit cost 320 SEK, and the prescriptions 45 SEK x 2 + 65 SEK. Soooo…I remain way impressed with the NHS and disappointed with the Swedish healthcare system that’s supposed to be so good. Well, it’s not, and we pay far too much for what we get. High taxes and high fees? What’s up with that?