Here Is Your Open Thread
In Reuters, Anya Schiffrin talks about what happened when her father was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and traded being treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering, a leading cancer treatment hospital, to being treated in Paris, where he was born. Schiffrin recalls spending entire days waiting around while her father got treated at Sloan Kettering, and how different it was after he moved to Paris to receive treatment under the French health care system:
So imagine my surprise when my parents reported from Paris that their chemo visits couldn’t be more different. A nurse would come to the house two days before my dad’s treatment day to take his blood. When my dad appeared at the hospital, they were ready for him. The room was a little worn and there was often someone else in the next bed but, most important, there was no waiting. Total time at the Paris hospital each week: 90 minutes.
There were other nice surprises. When my dad needed to see specialists, for example, instead of trekking around the city for appointments, he would stay in one room at Cochin Hospital, a public hospital in the 14th arrondissement where he received his weekly chemo. The specialists would all come to him. The team approach meant the nutritionist, oncologist, general practitioner and pharmacist spoke to each other and coordinated his care. As my dad said, “It turns out there are solutions for the all the things we put up with in New York and accept as normal.”
Photo: Moyan Brenn
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