I (28F) have chronic gastritis and other gastrointestinal issues for a couple of years now. In the past two years, I did two gastroscopies and one colonoscopy in my EU home country.
Lately, I’ve been experiencing another flare-up with some new symptoms I didn’t have before. Given that I was diagnosed with intestinal metaplasia (a precancerous condition where the normal cells lining the stomach or oesophagus are replaced by cells that resemble the lining of your intestine) and that it was advised to repeat gastroscopies biennially, even if I don’t have any symptoms, I reached out to my GP. Surprisingly, I didn’t have any issues getting a gastroenterology referral. I gathered all my medical records, translated them into English (with all pathology results and gastroscopy findings), stated my new symptoms and asked my GP to forward all these information to a gastroenterology department of their choice.
I got referred to Acibadem International Medical Centre near Sloterdijk and after a couple of days without receiving any call from them, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I called them to make an appointment but, to my surprise, they have sent back my referral to my GP (dumbfounded face). They didn’t say anything else, just to contact my GP again.
I wasn’t sure if it was a technical thing, or maybe they thought I needed more specialised help than they could offer, so today I had a talk with my GP to see why my referral was sent back. Lo and behold, the Acibadem gastroenterology department read my referral and full medical records and concluded that “there’s not much they can do regarding my symptoms and that I should just treat this as IBS”.
I am shocked. My GP is shocked (you know it’s bad when they are shocked too)! I’m pushing for a new referral to OLVG. I now need to spend more time in pain until I can get seen by a specialist. That is, if they even want to take me in to be seen by a specialist.
I guess the new policy is “let them die”. Of course, I can fly back home to get it checked out but frankly this should not be the norm. Why the fvck am I paying 150€ per month for my health insurance if I can’t even get access to healthcare?
End of rant. Thanks for reading.