This makes me MAD!!!

On Friday afternoon, one of our Indian engineers called me at about half past two and said he was not feeling well. I rushed to his workplace and took him to his local health centre in Tuira, only to find it closed for the summer. I tried the main City Health Centre at Kontinkangas, but found it closed already by 14:00 hours because it was a Friday.

Reluctantly, I had to take him to the Oulu University Central Hospital (OYKS) Out Patients Section as that was the only place available. I warned my dear friend what was likely to happen as has been recorded in an earlier blog entry.

He was told to have some laboratory tests done and then wait to see the doctor. After a wait of about 45 minutes, we got to get blood and urine samples taken. At this point, the nurse was kind enough to tell us the results would not be ready for a couple of hours. She told us that we should inform the office that we would be back at 18:30!

We returned at 18:30 and informed the office we were back. Not much good as it took another two hours before we saw the doctor who prescribed an antibiotic and a mild pain killer. I was told to organise to take him to the Oulu City Out Patient Department on Monday for further investigations.

We went to Yliopisto Apteeki, the only Pharmacy open so late in the evening, picked up the medicines, and I then dropped off the young lad at his apartment. He was not looking comfortable, but I hoped that maybe he would get better by the morning.

Saturday was a very busy day as I was scrapping my Audi and adding a Opel Vectra to my rental fleet. The customer had arrived in Oulu from Amsterdam and was anxious to get the car. I always ensure that my cars are in good mechanical condition, so I after my morning work at the office I was in the garage supervising the car servicing. In the meantime I brought the lady and her beautiful 2 month old baby, Arvind, to the office to finish the rental paperwork. The lady is Finnish from Oulu, her husband is from india and they live in Amsterdam.

After that, we went back to the garage, but the car was still being serviced as my mechanic decided to change the timing belt - usually done after 60000 km. As little Arvind was getting restless, I gave my car to the lady to go home and I said that I would bring the Vectra to her when it was ready. Just when the car was getting ready to hit the road, I had a call from our engineer, who said the pain had increased considerably and was almost unbearable. I promised I would be there as soon as possible. I took the Vectra to the lady's home on the outskirts of Oulu, only to find, that like me, she has a problem about remembering to switch off the lights. The battery was dead in my VW Vento. So I rushed back to Ahmatie, picked up my battery power loader, rushed to pick up the engineer and his friend, took them to the hospital, checked him in, telling the nurse that he had to see a doctor immediately.

The stupid nurse did not want to understand why I was desperate and she was trying to send the boy back home. However, because I insisted, she finally gave in and asked him to wait.

I knew it would take an hour or so, so I rushed off, exchanged the cars and got back to OYKS.

The poor boy was in great agony. Unable to stand seeing him writhing I made a fervent plea to the nurse to get the doctor to see him immediately. When we had reached, this poor youngster hardly had any fever, but now he was boiling. The temperature had reached 102 F (39 C). I made a second plea to the office and this time after another 15 minutes (about 2 hours since we had originally checked in) the doctor saw him. She decided to run the tests again, but my engineer friend was quite adamant that he could not wait sitting there as the pain was above the bearable threshold.

So we got a bed for him, they gave him a infusion pain killer and they brought the lab equipment to get his tests done again.

At that point it was decided to admit him into the hospital for observation. We left the engineer in the care of the hospital for the night.

I was there at 8 am to see him. He was feeling better as he was being given antibiotics by infusion and also he was having the pain killer. It was nice to see him smiling.

What infuriates me is the inability of Finnish doctor's to make any diagonis without a full set of results. They have absolutely no deductive skills. They are inexperienced as they just do not see enough patients to make a holistic assumption.

Further to have an Out Patient Department where the priority is for ambulance patients and then for children is just plain stupid. They should do the first assessment as a patient enters the hospital and make sure the priorities are fixed based on the condition of the patient.

If action had been taken immediately, this young engineer would not have to go through hell before he was to get the primary assistance!

All of you know that Annikki and I have written about this, sometimes even in jest - but this is past jesting. But the experiences with an 85 year old lady has certainly made us mad.

If you are an Indian working in Oulu, please check with your company that you can be treated in a private hospital - as I do not like seeing my young friends being subjected to this form of Finnish torture!

By the way, this is how Raantel Oy in Oulu looks after is tenants! :-)

A day of Finnish “efficiency”

The Scandinavian countries conjure up the image of being super efficient, especially because of small population with highly trained professionals in every sphere.

Yesterday was a lesson in what not to believe.

I have already drawn the wrath of a few for exposing the lack of competence of Finnish doctors, who in the main are inexperienced. Yesterday proved a lesson in incompetence of the highest order.

In the morning I had my blood test and my ECG. That went OK as I did not have to see any doctor. The result will be with me on Wednesday. I will refer them to my Indian doctor before I meet with the Finnish doctor next Monday.

In the afternoon, one of the newly arrived Indian engineers called me to tell me that he had fallen on Saturday and his right hand was in pain. As it was too late to go to our local health centre, as he stays in one of our apartments close to our home, I told him that after i finished my days work I would take him to the University Research Hospital Out Patient Section, as that is the only one which functions after 5 pm.

However, I warned him to have his dinner and take his computer or something to read as the process could take 4 hours or more.

Do you think he believed me?

I picked him up after my dinner at around 19:30. After finishing a couple more house calls, we reached the hospital by 20:15. We registered and got the initial paperwork over and sat down to wait. The waiting room was quite empty with just about a dozen people, patients with their friend waiting around.

9:15, 10:15, 11:15. 11:45 and we were called in to see a doctor. The young lady showed her inexperience in the way she felt the injured area. Of course, she came to no conclusion, so decided to get an X-ray.

So, of I took him to the X-ray section. As I know my way around that department because of my recent injury to my finger, I was able to complete that process within half an hour. The X-ray was on its way to the doctor.

Back we were at the waiting hall.

We waited till 2:45 to be called in by a doctor who confessed that he could not read the X-ray with any certainty and advised that I call the nurses in the morning so that we could get an opinion of a qualified radiologist!

Six and a half hours, and my young friend was sent away with no diagnosis but with the comforting thought that he had been given one free pain killer tablet. He said he would savour with great relish his free tablet! :-)

The total time spent with each doctor was not more that 5 minutes. The X-ray took 5 minutes. For 15 minutes patient contact, we waited 6 hours and a half.

When I reached home, Annikki was amazed that it had not taken 9 hours. :-)

My friend is likely to drumbeat his experience with all his other colleagues working in Oulu. I do not think many will want to visit the Out Patients Department in Oulu University Research Hospital!

A true indication of the professionalism of Oulu Doctors!