A comment to my previous post about Salud Responde and the process of getting an appointment at the doctors http://www.morethansunandpaella.com/2008/02/26/salud-responde/

Well, it seems I was overly positive and optimistic. This new system has reached the health centre in our nearby larger town, but our very local and small get-up consisting of a nurse and a doctor are still caught in the dark ages.

Not the doctor and nurse literally, of course, but the system. For some reason it has not been updated yet, so you still have to get there at 8, wait for the doctor to arrive, get your number and try to figure out when it might be your turn and end up wasting most of your day…

It is just so inefficient in drives me nuts. And such a waste of time for everyone. I wonder how many millions of euros Spain looses every year in lost revenue due to employees having to take a whole day of to go to the doctors. Arghh!

I makes you consider signing up to some private health scheme here in Spain, just to avoid the wait. At the moment we are all covered by the national security because we live and work here (Seguridad Social) but if this continues I might have to go private!