"However..."

People living outside of Sweden tend to think that the Swedish health care system is wonderful and provides great service to the people here.

People living in Sweden who depend on that very health care system know better.

Let me tell you the story of a growth. It is a tiny little growth right at my son's left ear, close to the tragus. It was the first thing I saw when they put him on my chest after he was born. I knew right then and there it had to go. "No problem", the doctor at the hospital said during the exam. "All they do is put a piece of really thin string around it and pull it right off", she said. "However, we don't do this here. The pediatrician at your BVC (medical center for children) will take care of it", she said.

The pediatrician at our BVC turned out to be a very young woman who looked like she had just graduated med school a month ago. She too took a look at the growth. "No problem", she said. "This can definitely be removed", she said. "However, I have never done this, so I would rather have a more experienced colleague take over", she said.

A couple of weeks later we met another doctor, again at BVC. He was only slightly older than the woman we had met last time and only there for the day, because the attending doctor had called in sick. He looked at the growth, just like everyone else before him. "No problem", he said. "This can definitely be removed", he said. "However, I am only helping out here for the day, so I don't know if I have all of the equipment. I will refer you to an ENT doctor who will remove the growth."

Pontus is now 6 months old. Today I went to meet the ENT doctor. After having waited for 20 minutes he took a look at the growth and said: "That is nothing dangerous and can definitely be removed. However, I will not do that. It really isn't that big and he is still so small and I am worried about how he will react to the local anesthesia...". Then he talked about how the growth was something natural and could stay where it was and that he might have done something about it if Pontus was 10 years old, but that he did not feel now was the right time.
Do I need to say that I lost it?
I told the ENT doctor that I had come to him today to have the growth removed, not to listen to the same monologue again and that I had no intention of waiting another 9,5 years until he felt ready to do his job. "I understand", he said. "I am sorry that everything has taken so long", he said. "What I can do is refer you to Karolinska hospital and then in 3 or 4 months you might be called to a doctor there to surgically have the growth removed while Pontus is completely under anesthetic", he said.

Four doctors and six months later this tiny little growth has apparently turned from something that could be taken off with a piece of string to a medical problem that requires surgery and anesthesia. If any of these so-called "health care professionals" had ACTUALLY DONE what they all acknowledged was DEFINITELY DOABLE, this problem would have been solved months ago. Instead I am off to meet yet another doctor...