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Testimony from a Recent Arrival
Medicina Peruana: One Canadian's (Pleasant)
Experience with Healthcare in Peru
By Matthew Allen

True confession: I've had the best medical care of my life here in Lima.

Like many things in Peru, the medical system has proven to be a great surprise. When I left Canada, I was worried that I would be terribly exposed. I would be living in a third-world country: a stranger in a strange land, prey to tropical infection, without the protection of Medicare.

After all, we Canadians pride ourselves on our socialized medicine. We pay high taxes so that everyone can have the benefit of good healthcare, education, law and order--not to mention the Queen's English.

We also pride ourselves on our high professional standards. Canadian doctors and nurses are among the best-trained in the world. When I first arrived in Lima, I worried that I would be helpless in the hands of the doctors here. I feared that they would be poorly trained, and that I would be vulnerable without Spanish. But, like many things in Peru, my visits to Clinica Anglo Americana and Clinica El Golf challenged my preconceptions.

I did have to learn the ropes, though… Make sure you have exact change. Flag down a taxi, ask the driver if he knows where the clinica is, and pay the going rate five soles. Enter through the doors marked “Emergencia” even for minor problems. Bring both passport and credit card, and pay at the Caja.

Not as easy as going to your doctor's office back home, but good service nonetheless. So much so, in fact, that I couldn't believe it the first time I went. I barely had time to read a magazine before a kindly Peruvian nurse took me in hand. Soon, I was attended by a briskly efficient Peruvian physician. He spoke good English, so I didn't have to bumble through my symptoms in Spanish. In a few minutes, he took my history, performed his examination, diagnosed my ailment, and prescribed his treatment--all with commendable professionalism.

To begin with, I was just grateful to have found my way as a foreigner. I could handle another small but puzzling piece of daily life in Lima. As time went on, a little culture shock set in. I was a bit taken aback by the doctors' decisiveness, a bit bemused by the nurses' starched caps, and felt a bit guilty for going to a private hospital. But these were just vague musings.

Then, suddenly, medicine really mattered. One night, I had a headache that wouldn't go away. After hours of tossing and turning, I finally set off for the Anglo Americana. “Must be a migraine,” I thought. I'd had them before. Fortunately, the attending physician was not so easily convinced. As it turned out, my pounding headache was caused by sudden spike in my blood pressure. Had the doctor been less skilled and decisive, I might easily have suffered a stroke. As it was, he quickly stabilized my blood pressure, and explained that I would need to see a cardiologist for follow-up treatment.

In Canada, I might have faced a long wait in an emergency ward and/or a visit to a General Practitioner before waiting weeks, if not months, to see a specialist. Here, it took two days, and I received excellent care at the Clinica El Golf. My cardiologist was cheerful and incisive, spoke excellent English, and did all the right things--quickly. ECG, echocardiogram, stress test: all done, right then, right there. Good follow-up, and no further problems, thankfully.

Sure it cost me a few hundred dollars, but my health plan covered it. Later, I wondered what my prognosis would have been in Canada, with six-month waiting lists for specialists. For that matter, would a Canadian doctor have responded as effectively in the middle of the night to someone who didn't speak English? My heart sank and my pride faded. So much for socialized medicine, I concluded. And so much for prejudices too. I'm thankful that my medical emergency happened here, and not at home.

As a Canadian, I do feel badly that not everyone in Peru has equal access to the same standard of care that I do. And I still miss having my own GP. But I'm very grateful for the excellent healthcare that I have received here. Medicine, like so much else in Peru, has proven to be an education as well as a pleasure.

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