Why would you go to a doctor?

When one gets sick in Canada, one goes to the doctor's office, sits in the waiting room an average of 40 minutes beyond the time of the appointment, only to receive a referral for lab tests or a specialists, at which point the waiting begins all over again. You wait at the lab to be tested. You wait two or three days to hear back about the results (if you hear at all) and then you wait to see your physician again to receive direction/prescriptions. Lastly, you wait 10-15 mins at the pharmacy for your prescription to be filled.

I've been ill for a few weeks now. I can only guess that I've picked up a bug that is happily wreaking havock on my system. So today, I finally decided to face the daunting task of figuring out the medical system in Jerusalem.

I started, not with a visit to a doctor's office, but with the pharmacy. "Why would you go to the doctor, they'll just take advantage of you as a foreigner and over charge you" I was told. I explained to the pharmacist my symptoms and he directed me to a lab. I wish I'd had my camera with me, because the lab essentially consists of one room with a computer dest at one end and the technician's equipement at the other end. I explained what test I was looking to have done...with no requisition, just my word. I waited while the technician ran the test.

He then printed off the results (which indicate I do not have bug at all), I paid my $15 sheckels (about $4) and made my way back to the pharmacist. The pharmacist is unconvinced the results are accurate, given my systems. He figures I do have a bug but its just not showing up. He prescribed (handed me) a low dosage antibiotic to kill any bugs in me and recommended I return to the lab in a few days to retry the test if the symptoms don't subside.

All in all, the entire "diagnosis," though not quite complete, took me about 40 minutes. The same amount of time my own doctor would have left me waiting past my appointment time.

...we'll see if the antibiotics work...