Ask Lemmy

Italy

If it is a routine visit, one week. If you are sick a prescription is done via phone, you will find your needed medications already in the pharmacy or it will be coming in 3 days max. Your health records, allergies and needs are already in the doctor's database and your prescription will account for that.

Practices done in public infrastructure is free, and most presciption medications are too,

But we do have a very serious wait time problem with specialist visits. In the worst cases it can take more than a year if you need special visitations. There just aren't enough medics specialized to fill those positions, and who is available prefers less stressful and overworked positions.

Ireland here. I have been relatively lucky with my health since I've been here (last 10 years). The GP I go to gives a small discount because of where i work. I pay 50 euros a pop to see the doc (usually 60 I think) but the last two times I needed to see the doc it was a same day appointment. I paid for insurance the first year I was here, tried to use it when I saw a GP and they laughed in my face. Also frequently had my daughter seen (for free), they seem to keep increasing the age for which kids are seen for free, now up to age 7?

US expat in Colombia

For the general population, if you're sick you go to urgent care and maybe wait for several hours. If you need to see a specialist, those appointments can take a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on the type of specialty. Either way, the cost is about $3 (all prices are rough equivalents in USD) per visit to see a doctor.

My employer signed me up for private insurance that gives me "concierge service," so I have access to a different network of doctors with shorter wait times. If I'm sick, I can get a same-day house call. If I need a specialist, I can usually get an appointment in a two-week time frame. I pay about $50 per month for that (in addition to my normal taxes, which are used to fund the public system). My copay per visit, regardless of the type of doctor or procedure (exams, MRIs, etc.) is about $10.

One time, I paid out of pocket for an ultrasound because I didn't want to wait for the insurance company to approve it and go back for a separate appointment. It cost me about $25.

Australian here from Victoria. Going to the GP will cost me around $80 up front and I get around $50 back from Medicare later. This is for about a 30 minute consultation with a doctor. The wait time is rarely longer than 15 minutes but it really depends on the practice. I've waited 2+hours for a GP that was fully covered by Medicare.

Depends on what I'm going to the Dr for. If it's a physical injury that's bearable but not going away I can get an opinion from a pharmacist first then go to a Dr if they recommend, if it's something like a chest infection or other illness I can call a non emergencies line to get a Dr's opinion and they might ask me to come in for a physical checkup. If it's something more urgent than that then I guess just turn up at A&E and probably spend a few hours waiting in triage till there's a Dr who can see me.

The NHS is really struggling so I try to avoid going to the Dr for minor stuff but most of the time when I've deemed it big enough to need to see a Dr it's been pretty smooth for me. Only time I've had problems was when I injured my knee and couldn't walk properly then got bounced around for months after my x-ray showed that I hadn't fractured it, I was supposed to get a scan to check if it was muscle damage and when I turned up for said scan they just had a physio therapist tell me I need to walk on it more to exercise the muscles in my kneecap after the swelling from the initial damage weakened them.

Canada... Depends what kind of visit really. I captain a few rec teams, so breaks or dislocations, we'll go to emergency, get triaged and wait for a bit.

If it's somwthing I'd like to get checked out but not urgent, I'll schedule an appointment with my family dr, might take a week or 2?

For something sooner, I'll go to one of the several walk in clinics nearby. Wait time really varies but generally pretty quick as long as I get there a little early.

Honestly depends.

If it's life or death urgent, an ambulance arrives, takes you away and with any luck, fix you right up. Visitors will likely have to pay to park at the hospital, and that will be your biggest expense. When my dad had a cardiac arrest, it was during covid, so the parking was free. The biggest expense was cleaning his blood off the carpets and putting their cat in the cattery for a week.

If it's something non-urgent, and the cause isn't immediately found by a doctor, then you might go on a waiting list and be seen in a few months maybe. And even then it might not get sorted. It's not like House.

The most annoying bit is the 8am phone roulette to try and get an appointment.

Call the place, if it is infectious they put you on sick leave and you don't have to infect all ppl at the doctor. If the sick leave runs out, most often 3 days or so mainly to get you to the next weekend. If the issue persists you got to them. Doesn't cost anything beyond what you pay in taxes. Anything that's more involved than the typical issues might have you go to several offices (general offices then to more specialised) until someone makes a decision on what it is and how to deal with it. Also no extra cost; those come when you have something that could be dealt with but is not needed. Like you will have a decent quality of life if they patch it every now and then instead of fixing it. Then you might have to pay for that special extra pls just fix it. At least that's been my experience in Germany.