# Warning about "Free" healthcare in Paphos General Hospital



## thejohn32 (Feb 6, 2010)

OK - so we all know that if your entitled you can get free health care in the General Hospital, we have private but it does not cover existing conditions so had to use general for my wife

For 4 weeks my wife has been in crippling pain from a kidney stone which she gets occasionally, sometimes they pass ( painfully ) some times they dont.

The first week they kept giving her injections of pethadine and sending her home.

The second week we seen a doctor in the hospital and he referred us to see Urology - so the next daty we joined the queing system at 8 am, but as she did not have an appointment had to sit there till 2pm till everyone else had gone through - eventually the doctor booked her in for an x-ray in 3 days time and sent her home with tramadol. She told the doctor that its a cysteine stone and they wont show on the x-ray but was told basically he is the doctor.

The x-ray in 3 days did not show anything and he suggested it might not be a stone and to come back next week if not better

week 3 and we went back, through the queing system and seen the doctor and he poked and proded her and took my wifes suggestion of a CT Scan as that is all that will show cysteine stones, so had to wait another week for this, back home on pethadine and wait.

week 4 - got the CT scan and it showed a 2cm by 1cm stone, blocking the kidney, kidney had stopped functioning and swollen to twice its size - , atlast we thought - wrong - he said she definitely wont pass it and needs to have it removed - and booked her in for pre surgery 4 weeks later !!! i started to say that is wrong, you cant leave her like this for another month and he started to shout and tell me i am lucky to get it sorted this quick as he knows in UK she could wait up to 6 month ( bollocks!)

ANYWAY - after that appointment i booked my wife a last min seat that day back to the UK where her family is in Bristol, the next day she walked into A and E and after a few scans she is in a hospital bed with a stent in her kidney draining the fluid, on pain relief and awaiting a slot in surgery to remove the stone - infact the hospital had a go at her for leaving it so long and told her she should have come weeks ago as it was dangerous - obviously she did not tell them she moved to cyprus

moral of this story - beware if you are relying on "free" health care from the General Hospitals - you are fobbed off, treated as second class citizens and the place is horrible, (we sat next to a poor man in a dressing gown holding a full bag of his own pee, no blanket or anything covering his modesty ) although i am informed they are good with heart problems

sorry for the long post, guess i just needed a rant and if you read this far thank you 

( p.s. i still think Cyprus is a great place to live (if your healthy))

john mcdonald


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## Baywatch (Mar 30, 2014)

thejohn32 said:


> OK - so we all know that if your entitled you can get free health care in the General Hospital, we have private but it does not cover existing conditions so had to use general for my wife
> 
> For 4 weeks my wife has been in crippling pain from a kidney stone which she gets occasionally, sometimes they pass ( painfully ) some times they dont.
> 
> ...


I have had no bad experience with Paphos General. I am diabetic and need tests made regularly. But I did it another way.

Using forums like this one I found out a good specialist. Then I went to the hospital and made an appointment directly with her. No GP necessary. 2 weeks later I got an appointment and now it runs very smooth

Sorry for your bad experience, but my suggestion is that avoid the GP next time, they are only good for prescription renewal


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## thejohn32 (Feb 6, 2010)

This was not just the GP - this was the Urology Department - cant avoid that department if you have Kidney problems as they deal with it

i know some people to who have had good experiences there too but i think it might just be that Department - this is the department / hospital that the Kidney association raised all that money for a dialysis machine as they did not have one, and three months after they raised enough and bought it, the hospital still have not switched it on !


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

Oh gosh, poor Debs I hope she gets sorted very soon. Give her mine and Dennis' regards when you speak to her.


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## wizard4 (Feb 3, 2013)

Surprised they are going for surgery, they usually try Lithotripsy first, basically they bombard the stone with sound waves to break it up, I had a very large stone and that did the trick.
Just a thought, anyway hope all goes well.
cheers


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## thejohn32 (Feb 6, 2010)

lithotripsy only works on certain stones, it does not work on cistiene stones which is what she has.

by the time she got to hospital in UK , the infection was so bad that the hospital said she was lucky not to lose the kidney completely, if not her life if she had left it any longer - makes me so annoyed the more i think of that doctor having a go at us and telling us were lucky to get an op in 6 weeks as in uk it is usually 6 months then ushering us out the door - !


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

How is Debs doing John? Has she had the op and is she on the mend?


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## thejohn32 (Feb 6, 2010)

She got released from hospital yesterday with a stent in her kidney to keep draining it until they can get her a slot in theatre and infection gone completely. She still in a lot of pain but got plenty drugs to keep her happy for the now. 

Her son and his girlfriend just had a baby 2 days ago and she is over the moon to be home for the birth of her first grandchild so a silver lining.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

At least there is a bit of a silver lining there. Hope she gets the op soon so she can start to get on the mend. Please give her mine and Dennis regards when next talking to her.


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