Cretan-homes, Crete property estate agents

Take two, lying down

by Ann Lisney

When you move to a new country you are always slightly anxious about health care, especially if the new medical system is being conducted in a language other than your own. Because Rob and I had both taken retirement before our due pension age, we were only entitled to free health care for twelve months after leaving the UK, and since that time we have had to make other arrangements.

When our free twelve months expired, we tried to set up private health cover locally and had to undergo blood tests and visit a cardiologist. We set up an appointment with the cardiologist, who said he would need to check our blood pressures and carry out ECGs. I went first – stripped to the waist as instructed and lay on the couch. The cardiologist walked into the room. “I do not think you have the good heart,” he says, from six feet away and without benefit of any instruments. Then he took my blood pressure.  Oh, what a surprise! It was up! He seemed quite disappointed when my ECG returned normal.

Because Rob also had a high blood pressure reading, the local insurers were not keen to give us satisfactory cover, so we eventually had to get ourselves sorted out with a company in the UK.

In order to get some sort of treatment for our blood pressure, we turned up at our local health centre, took a ticket (much like a cloakroom ticket) and queued up outside the relevant doctor’s door. It turned out to be a bit of a scrum – despite every patient having a number, several try to push every time the door opens, and if a new patient turns up outside the doctor’s door and finds it closed, they just seem to march in anyway (despite the fact that the patient inside may be in the middle of an examination). But we both eventually got seen – another ECG in each case – and prescribed the relevant medication. We now have to buy this over the counter at the pharmacy, which we think is pretty amazing. You can actually ask for – and get – most medicines over the counter here (with the exception of dangerous things like Codeine which you need a prescription for….)

Apart from the high blood pressure, the only other medical problem I have had have been migraines. I had hoped that a stress-free life in Crete might mean I had fewer of them, but this was not the case.

Some sympathetic soul in our village made an appointment for me with a neurologist, and I went along to see if she could help. Having ruled out the simple things, she felt I ought to have a brain scan – just to rule out anything more serious. The only place they do brain scans in this part of Crete is the local psychiatric hospital. Ha ha! Cue all the jokes about letting me in and not letting me out, etc. etc.

Under the circumstances, Rob kindly came with me, and we had to announce ourselves at the main gate.  The psychiatric hospital looks much as you would expect – a cross between an army camp and an English hospital from the1950s - and we managed to make ourselves understood. We were directed to a two-storey block and enquired again. Yes, that’s right; we had to go upstairs. Well, upstairs appears to be a ward. Yes, you go through the ward….

Leaving Rob outside, I gathered up my courage and strode through the ward. Sure enough, on the other side was a room where I was wired up to a lot of fancy equipment and my brain was bombarded with electricity as it was put through its paces. Fortunately, no problems were discovered.

On leaving the building, I only just managed to retrieve Rob, who was seemingly being coaxed off into the bushes by an elderly inmate dressed in pyjamas…..

And the migraines? Well, strangely enough, now I have decided to grow old gracefully and discontinue HRT, they have vanished completely. Now why didn’t the doctor think of that?

Postscript: It may well be that others non-nationals are able to join one of the Greek health insurance schemes, so please do not take our experience as typical when you come to be sorting out your own healthcare.

by Ann Lisney