Navigating Dalmatian Hospitals in Croatia: My Eye-Opening Experience
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 มิ.ย. 2024
- 🏥 Considering healthcare in Dalmatia, Croatia? Watch this first! In this video, I share my personal journey and some crucial insights into the healthcare system. From challenges to triumphs, I'm opening up about my experiences to help you make informed decisions. 🩺💡 Don't miss this firsthand account! #DalmatianHospitals #HealthcareCroatia #ExpatExperience
Keywords: Dalmatian Hospitals, Healthcare in Croatia, Expat Experience, Croatia Healthcare System, Dalmatia Medical Facilities, Croatia Hospitals, Healthcare Abroad, Dalmatia Expat Tips.
Thanks for that insight. I've had dealings with Split Hospital, and I have to say they were very helpful. Hope he's fine now.❤
Im glad you had a good experience in Split, I thought it would be better.
What a terrifying ordeal. I'm sorry your friend had to go through that. I've not had hospital experiences in Croatia but have had several doctor/dentist/other appointments in Istria. So far we have usually gone the private route and have had only positive experiences.
As in the UK, wait times in Canada are very long, 12-18 months for specialists and MRIs. But in Istria/Kvarner the waits are usually about a week, a vast improvement. Our dentist is stellar, too, kind and compassionate. But as I said, this is private care. We are willing to pay for visits to avoid waiting. My rheumatologist is nothing short of amazing.
Medications are much cheaper than in Canada, too. However, it is important to remember wages in Canada are higher.
All in all, we rate our healthcare experiences in Croatia as superior to those in Canada with the exception of funny quirks such as shut doors and trying to figure out appointment procedures as there are sometimes (often) no receptionists.
I wish you, your family and your friend much better care in the future.
Sounds like you've had some great experiences in your area where you are. I expected it would be better up north than in Dalmatia as everything seems to be back in time. Which can be good for somethings and bad for other things.
I have been using some private doctors too for various things, which has been effiecient and well looked after. but I guess you would expect that if youre paying for it.
I cant grumble with UK health services, for me everything has been great and its free for all citizens.
I would love to get in touch with you @maslina4567 as we also have a place in Istria (Rovinj) and I need a rheumatologist in Istria.
@claudiajaques8974 Rovinj is out of this world beautiful! How do we share contact information? My rheumatologist is in Poreč. Her name is Dr. Dolores Ghersinich (yes, that spelling is correct!). She is kind and compassionate. I read somewhere she's one of the top rheumatologists in the country and I believe it!
@Dusan.Grujic Yes, my experiences have been pretty amazing with a few exceptions which have nothing to do with quality of care...just almost humorous logistical situations which vary a lot from what Canadians are accustomed to. Not bad, just different. Learning to communicate in Croatian makes a huge difference as not all medical staff I've encountered speak English, though most do. But now I know enough to converse.
@@maslina4567 Thank you soooo much!!!! ❤❤❤ I hope to run into you in Istria!
Everything you said, Dusane, rings a bell with me.
I'll have to compose a proper repy, then copy and paste it here.
Stay tuned.
hahah please do! you have an experience for all things in Croatia!
Health care in Croatia, as you found out, is a hit and miss.
When we moved there in December 2017, we found a family doctor within a couple of weeks, right after we got our HZZO insurance.
I asked the Medical Association for an English speaking family doctor in Karlovac, only 50 kms away from Slunj were we were staying. Done!
Well, sort of.
One couldn't make an appointment to see him, you had to go his office (a drive of over 50kms for us), and wait with other 30-40 people, then shout at the receptionist when she opened the doors, which was rare, in order to be asked to come in.
The doctor was good, first class physician once you got to talk to him, but to get by the receptionist was terrible.
Had to go to the Karlovac hospital once, and that was not as bad as going to hospitals in Ontario or Quebec. Waited, maybe, 20 minutes to be seen by a physician at the Karlovac hospital, whereas I waited once over 7 hours at a Montreal hospital - finally gave up, and went home. Wife waited once over 14 hours here, and never got see even a nurse, nevermind a doctor.
Might have said this before, but don't get sick in Canada!!!
Prescriptions are much, much less expensive in Croatia than they are in Canada even though we supposedly have "Universal" healthcare which is supposed to pay for a large percentage of medications' costs.
I like how you ask the doctor there for repeats of prescriptions, he fills out a government form over the internet, and sends it out. The authorisation automatically shows up at all Croatian pharmacies, and you can pick your prescription at any pharmacy anywhere in Croatia. In Canada, that's not the case. You have to go to the pharmacy that has all your records. No other will do.
Dentists?
We were lucky to find one in Zagreb, a Canadian born one no less, who was excellent, and was extraordinarily inexpensive compared to the thieving bastards here.
Banks?
I had no issues with them in Croatia, but wife did!
She wanted to open a normal bank account of her own, but couldn't do it without my signature. She thought that that was culturally backwards, as it is, because "Southern Europe". Woman there are sometimes classified as second class citizens due to culture, and habits.
While we lived there, we had a lot of help from my Croatian cousins, so we didn't have to do everything on our own from beginning which would have been hard, no doubt.
Buying a piece of land on which we planned to build our house proved to be a challenge until we hired a local Land Surveyor who knew people there, and who was selling properties.
We tried on our own, but prices skyrocketed by ten, twenty fold once the sellers knew we were in town.
"They come from America, and they have millions, so we can ask for any money", was their attitude towards us.
The Land Surveyor made it look like he was buying rather than us. Saved a tonne of money there.
The land is still there, and is just on my name, because we stayed there for less than a year. Had we stayed longer, then we could have put my wife of the title too. Another reason for my wife to be pissed mad at the way things are done in Croatia.
Sorry for a late reply. Got busy with things in Montreal.
Cheers,
Nick
@@Dusan.Grujic
@@apscoradiales "She thought that that was culturally backwards, as it is, because "Southern Europe". Woman there are sometimes classified as second class citizens due to culture, and habits." - She thought wrong. It must have been something of an administrative nature that she didn't understand. I have never in my life felt that I was treated differently because I am a woman. If I did, that would certainly be a reason for me to move to another country. Women are quite dominant here and would not tolerate it any other way.
Have you ever tried opening a savings bank account in a Croatian bank as a married woman?
You need your husbands signature for that!
There are a lot barriers to women in Croatia.@@Ines-uw5gi
Hi Dusan, to get good service , you need good people, to get good people care is needed. For people to care they need to value and respect human life. We are living in crazy times where only the selective isams have value and not the people. People are used to fulfill some type of doctrine that have no benefit to people.
Love, care, kindness, truth, respect , are in low supply , all high human values are rare to find , Croatia is no exception . Proper incentives, policies and education could greatly benefit ....
I spent my childhood summers around Šibenik. My mom worked in healthcare up in northern Croatia back then (90s) and one thing I distinctly remember she always said was - never go to Šibenik hospital. Ever. This one time a little mishap happened with my eye and we had to go there, she was scared out of her wits.
To be honest i dont know why he left zadar one, it seems to be running better
Health care any where in east Europe is appalling . Italy and Greece are really shocking if you do not have private cover . I am in London and nearly lost my hand after an operation here . Standards here in UK are falling rapidly with many really appalling foreign trained nurses and doctors filling the severe shortages in the UK hospital system .
Only when in Australia visiting family did the doctor immediately recognize a severe post operative infection . Foreign trained Uk Doctor failed to recognise this !!!!
Only Western europe has any proper facilities and care standards in Europe . Croatiamust be shocking
That's scary! I hope your friend is healing well. I wonder what the other regions are like?
Hes doing very well thanks :) from what i hear they are better
Have been thru almost the same thing with my mom. My mom and I are from Zagreb. She got an infection on her toe, after a few rounds of antibiotics the gp send her to the hospital. She was in and out of surgery 6 times in 4 monts, lost the leg. In the mean time she got a bump on the second leg and it also got bad. The leg started to decompose. The hospital made her wait for more than a month for her last surgery to amputate the second leg. I called them every day, nothing. We came in with a gp note 3 times, and they still send her home after a bandage swop. No room for her, they said. Her leg was falling apart! This was Vinogradska hospital. I called the ambulace after she hade gone to shock. She did't make it. In the end she died of MRSA bacteria, still waiting for the operation. The hospitals are shit, and if you don't have money to bribe or go privat, you are f*cked.
I am sorry for your loss 😢
Dear Dušan, I know these problems with Croatian hospitals, doctors and nurses all too well. It is outright terrible. Solving this needs to be our top priority...but with our corrupt thieves of politicians (most of them) this will take some time. 😕
Yea regions are vastly different in a lot of things. Split and Zagreb are even innovative in some areas on world level medical innovations but health care overall is ok, it helps knowing someone always :D. It is Croatia after all... it's going to be a thing always I have a feeling. Regions vastly differ in access to some things, I would even say Istra and Kvarner have the best health care due to many private clinics based on health tourism (just my guess though).
I concur that health tourism is a big thing in Istria and Kvarner and that healthcare standards are typically high. I have no personal experience of it in Dalmatia so cannot compare.
@@maslina4567 what is health tourism?
@@T.Account.356 It's when people travel to places where treatment is better or more affordable. It can be one or the other or both...in case of Croatia it's probably both.
Ill be driving up there if god forbid I need it! #healthtourist
@testaccount8566 I've heard it called health or medical tourism. Some countries such as Turkey and Croatia have healthcare available to foreigners for surgeries, orthodontics, etc. Quality of technology and care is incredible in these places. Plus compared with many countries prices are much cheaper (my dentist does this...and I pay about a third of the price I'd pay in Canada for routine work).
Croatia has had rural spas for many decades, too. Tourist clinics also help arrange accommodations for patients.
We have a shortage of nurses and they are overworking cause probably they are understaffed in smaller towns so that makes the nurses to be snobby ,rude ,stressed out and they feel entitled due to fact they know noone can really fire them cause they r needed.Thats the problem.They act like they own the hospitals in most cases.
The issue with ur friend seems like hes a diabetes case and he waited too long to take care of the wound.
If you compare it to Canada, u go to an emergency, ur stuck there up to 8 hrs sometimes waiting sick in the waiting room to see the dr. Once i was in pain for days, went to emergency, some lesbian dr told me that its not enough to be at emergency for and gave me one pill to get rid of me,sent me home. I said do i need to cry and wave my hands around for her to take me seriously…noone even bothered to check me out or anything and she was rude about it.Horrible experience.Some general doctors got their degrees in 3rd world countries like India and China and they are so shallowly educated and their knowledge is like 10% of the knowledge of the dr ull end up with in Croatia.The hospitals are equipped, but also there are lots of issues and sometimes its very frustrating.UK might be better but if i compare Cro and Can ,id say yeah,nurses are better in Can, most hospitals better equipped but overall id say probably hospitals in Split and Zagreb are on the same level and drs are way better educated.Small towns maybe not,but if u have a larger issue u go to bigger city i think.
Yes i thought it would be to do with ego, of them being infirable. Still it shoudnt be a thing.
I dont think he is diabetic.
I had to wait around for 3-4 hours in this hospital in Sibenik so the wait wasn't great either. The care in England is great and is all free for citizens. I now appreciate it alot more than i did previously.
Wife waited 14 hours one time at a hospital in West Montreal without seeing a doctor or a nurse. I waited at the same hospital over 7 hours, and again, no result.
People have actually died in that hospital in the waiting room in the emerg, and nobody gives a shiet.
Most nurses don't care one bit.
I've yelled at them (at the Ajax Pickering Hospital) telling them, they can go and f themselves, "If you don't want the job, leave, there are others who do want the job, and will replace you.".
Former next door neighbour was kicked out the same hospital be cause she complained about how her mother was treated.
Security guard escorted her out, and told her to never come back.
I waited over two and a half years to be assigned a "family" doctor up here in Montreal by the Quebec government.
Even though she calls herself a "family" doctor, she won't take my wife as a patient.
So, "family" my arse!
There are widely published and known cases of nurses here badmouthing Native Canadians, and some making fun of one who was dying. It was all recorded.
Croatian health care can, and is crappy too, but you can SOMETIMES get a private doctor, if you have the money, whereas that's illegal in Canada - it's against Health Canada to charge money to patients for things the government pays.
Tell you, I could write books about the state of Canadian health care!
Prvo , Pratim Tvoj kanal
Odlučno je što radiš, i teško. Iz iskustva , predlažem Stoičku filozofiju, kao pristup.
Razumijem da si još previše sam u okruženju. Plasirana , uvriježena znanja, mišljenja o Hrvatskoj , nisu upotrebljiva. Kao i svugdje , nije realno očekivati učinkovitu pomoć od "sustava"..
Valja oblikovati svoj čvrsti krug ljudi prijatelja, za najvažniju podršku u potrebi. Tko to nije učinio , praktički je već kao mrtav.
Ili, ako je tvoj susjed , iz svog kruga ispao nekako , koma i užas.
Baš u Šibenskoj bolnici imao sam loše iskustvo. No samo dugo čekanje u ljetnoj sezoni.
Sa tad malim sinom. No, kad mi je pregorilo, riješio sam u času sa 100 kn (2006.g) i na oko 100 m s dragim priv doktorom.
Supruga je nizozemka, živila je u Hr, večinom radila u svom veleposlanstvu. No rodila je 4 djece , završila 2 fakulteta. Ja sam arhitekt, bavim se uglavnom starinama. Ostao sam živjeti u Hr. Supruga s djecom je nakon 19 god otišla u Nl, i zasad se vozimo između. Davno sam bio i na ljetnim školama u Liverpoolu. A i kako sam godinama pokrivao povijesne utvrde u Hr ( stručna udruga), ostao sam npr u dragom kontaktu i s predsjednikom FORT-a, Johnom Harrisom ... dragim nesto starijim kučnim prijateljem iz Londona. Itd. Malko se znam i s Paulom Bradburyem iz Manchestera, sa snimanja na otoku Žirje.
Ako misliš, da ti već i nakratko mogu pomoći,
Slobodno mi se javi putem npr sms itd
098 735902
Stjepan Lončarić dia
Zagreb
Hej, hvala na komentaru. Zabilježit ću vaš broj. možda očekujte poziv jednog dana!
@@Dusan.Grujic hvala na pažljivom odgovoru.
Sreca ti nece pomoci , nego strpljivost - smirenost, snalažljivost i odlučnost .
Its hit and miss in Croatia. Some people working in healthcare treat you without compassion and are just rude.
Not really sure why this is the case maybe they are not trained properly.
This happens in other govt depts too.
I think i hear its better up north
da ovo je sve točno,mene čudi da su ga sa 80 godina uopče htjeli operirat
not if i didnt push them!
What horrible experience! I'm sick and tired of hearing about how stressfull and underpaid nurses are! A lot of people have that same situation allover! It's no excuse to be rude.
exactly, its literally everywhere
I'm very sorry to hear such a bad experiences from our hospitals but this is absolutely not the same case in all hospitals and regions. Majority of hospitals especially in large cities and in particular in Continental Croatia for the most part offer relatively high quality service with very professional and sympathetic staff regardless if we're talking about nurses, doctors, technicians...
I come from Slavonski Brod, second largest city in Eastern Croatia, I've had many visits to hospitals, even few hospitalisations ... and I can say in over 90% cases all staff was super professional.
Me and my family also have been to several other public hospitals in Zagreb, Osijek and some more and in majority had none of problems.
At the other hand, my wife had to go to short medical treatment in some smaller hospital at one island in Dalmatia where doctor was very polite and helpful but nurse was very unprofessional, rude and with attitude.
At the Dalmatian coast some public workers in offices including those in healthcare system tend to be less professional and even rude and in some cases also lazy which, in my opinion, has to do a lot with Mediterranean mentality, something with which many of us from Continental Croatia are very pissed off!
But to be fair, there are also some great healthcare professionals from even there and there should be no generalisation.
Ps. As I remember there are available official channels of communication, email and so called white phone from the Croatian Ministry of health where citizens can put an official complaint against malpractice and unprofessional treatment in any hospital, something that is usually handled very seriously. You can find contacts at the Ministry's official website.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with hospitals across Croatia. It's quite heartening to hear that most hospitals in larger cities and Continental Croatia maintain a commendable standard of service with professional staff. Your encounters in those places seem rather promising.
Regrettably, your wife's experience with a nurse in a smaller Dalmatian hospital appears to have been less than satisfactory. It seems there are discernible differences in the approach to care across various regions, doesn't it?
Haha I would complain but it would probably take a few years. and i dont want to be known at the hospitals if i need them... eeek
Hey there! If you're interested in Croatia, whether it's moving, living, or just exploring the country, I've started a Facebook community just for that!
Join us for discussions, helpful tips, local insights, and opportunities. We're planning meet-ups, live chats, expat assistance, and more exciting activities.
Click the link below to become part of our community. Let's connect, share experiences, and make your Croatia journey awesome together!
facebook.com/groups/6953631684672220/
@@Dusan.Grujic
In my opinion there's absolutely difference between some regions when it comes to hospital staff approach to their work and treatment of patients.
Continental Croatia tends to be better but as I've said there should be no generalizations since there's also large number of great doctors and nurses at the Adriatic coast, for instance Rijeka has high quality hospital with doctors that are very often breaking grounds in introduction of new and experimental treatments with which is Rijeka on international level likewise hospitals in Zagreb.
But, also some smaller hospitals than those in four largest cities are often following their steps. Slavonski Brod where I come from has quite high quality doctors that are also introducing new and internationally speaking very up to date medical procedures among the first ones in Croatia.
When it comes to complaints these are usually resolved quite quick.
Kind regards and keep on going! 👍👍
I don't know dude...I had never a bad experience in our hospitals and believe me I was there a few time's...🤷🏻♂️
Where are you from though?
I feel sorry for the guy but if he was in The Nederlands he would be taken care of.
Yes the property is expensive but the nurses treat you nicely……
You want cheap living……..you get cheap living!
yes he probably would of been taken care of. unfortunate about his circumstances but it is what it is.
Croatia isnt that cheap though I would say its quite expensive living here
If you live in dalmatia you'll find them people are lazy because when the tourists go they sit on their bum for 8 months.
If you go to central Croatia where there is no tourism you will find that people are hard workers.
So stop blaming Croatia.
I watched your potato planting video and that's a perfect example.
Throwing potatoes in a ditch from 3 feet.
They won't even bend over to plant a potato.
That's dalmatia.
I’m not blaming anyone, I am merely telling my experience. Truth hurts my friend, if you read many of peoples experiences they have the same with Croatian hospitals.
@Dusan.Grujic I was born in labin hospital it's the best 👌