German Medical Interventions

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As I age the more aches and pains I develop. So far what's new! Howsoever,with a systemic arthritic condition, I wondered if anyone here knew what was happening over on yonder continent,and which politically we might be leaving soon.

I'm thinking about prescriptive medical interventions endorsed and paid for by the state seen as evidence based by the German medical authorities. WhatamIonabout? Right or wrong? Medical practioners over there can and do prescribe for their patients 4 weeks(hols!!)therapeutic treatment down at their spas for,say,skin disorders,confirmed arthritic conditions. I think they once were using St Johns Wort for depression,Evening Primrose oil for breast sensitivity. We may get something here,but it doesn't seem as mainstream as over in Germany.

Travelling through Vichy(France)I had some of their waters(very nice actually),but there were many taps cordoned off, labelled only accessible on doctors prescription/authorisation.

You have salt mines(in Hungary?)for arthritis.

I guess these countries medical authorities aren't wasting their countrymens money? Peer reviewed,evidence based. I seem to think it was common practice over yonder to refer patients to such facilities. Fanciful?

[Audax67]

You'd need to be careful. In the UK, the NHS takes care of the greater part of medical treatment, but in Germany the state scheme covers only a minor part, the rest being covered by a private fund financed by shared employer/employee contributions. A doctor in Germany might well prescribe you a cure, but the NHS would cover only that part which the German state scheme would, and unless you had a private fund covering the difference then the rest would be out of your pocket. I used to know a UK bloke who spent a few weeks in hospital there with broken bones and almost had a heart attack when he saw the bill.

That was a good while ago - maybe 30 years - but I doubt if things have changed much: I wrote software for a private health fund in Germany right up to Y2K and it was still the same then. I'd make very careful enquiries in official places and get everything accounted for to the last [extinct] Pfennig before sailing into such a deal.

[531colin]

My mum used to get the odd week sort of "respite" in the old Royal Bath Hospital in Harrogate, where she enjoyed some of the "treatments". Hydrotherapy was basically wafting gently around in a very warm pool, with somebody making sure she didn't go under, and there was a "warm wax treatment" which eased the pain in her hands for a few minutes. If she could get the right week, she got free admission to the Flower Show in the adjacent Valley Gardens for herself and a volunteer wheelchair pusher, and there were different people to talk to, which is a great bonus if you are more or less housebound. As "holidays" go, it probably wasn't even 2 star, and in reality a cure was never likely.
All gone now, the proud old hospital has been flogged off for luxury apartments.

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Tho many medical interventions have improved outcomes and thru-put in hospitals,I do wonder what happens(and wonder what is available)sometimes. I guess there is respite care,no? Many people now live alone(smaller families,own family gone or geographically seperated). You go in for an op. What happens after? It's not as if you're ill at one point,recovered the next. Who's to go out shopping for you for grub. Maybe help you get up,get dressed in the morning? Toilet,clean yourself? I guess your main supporter would be your mobile phone,make sure it's charged. Problems? You just have to dial 999,fabricate some story to make your plight an intervention(you wouldn't be fibbing anyways). I wouldn't be sure of SS sorting stuff out: at best a 10 minute visit time by some sub-contracted-out firm.