When Fear in Mexico is Real
There are so many posts about crime and safety in Mexico that are just a waste of bandwidth. The following is something that most of us never consider. We are back in Canada. Although we live in the...
Forum Discussion
Almot wrote:
Let's not deviate. Insurance coverage is a different thing. The best insurance in the world is useless when there is no fuel in the ambulance.
Moisheh - I don't know where you are, in Canada. What you described, sounds like a hospital scene from CSI Miami - almost a science fiction. In Vancouver (and other cities with over one million population) you may easily wait several hours in emergency room. Every day, any time of the day it is full of people waiting. None of them are here with something that "can wait" - all are seriously ill or injured. Triage - sorting out the patients on priority basis - isn't perfect, people sometimes are having a stroke, waiting in the chair, without anybody noticing until the guy drops down.
The best time is (usually) late morning, when junkies and injured party-goers have been dealt with, and this day "clientele" hasn't start coming in yet.
Kino is in a (relatively) good position, being 1.5 hour away from major city with good hospitals. Places on the coast with a decent hospital are priced out of reach, for most of us.
Besides, like you said, in such places you at the very best will be given a minimal help to stabilize the condition, nothing else. Then you keep your fingers crossed that you'll survive a long ride to a "real" hospital. Evac plans advertised everywhere with nice pictures of ambulance plane, are BS. Even in a major city with big airport it takes several hours from the time of call to admittance to that other hospital. In a smaller town - make it +24 hours.
Maybe we've been lucky (and live in a smaller community but with good hospitals nearby) but I've been pleased with the service and triage that's performed. Took a friend complaining of pains in his chest to a local hospital, the triage nurse sent him in immediately and he was on a monitor within minutes. Turned out not to be his heart, but he got a doctor supervised stress test within the hour to confirm.
If you go in to emerg with a cold or flu, be prepared to sit for hours before being seen, what the system hasn't figured out is how to provide efficient walk-in services with minimal waits for these less than serious maladies.
