Mexico’s Seguro Popular—A model of inefficiency–prescription at last!

So, holding my breath that the lab results would be in, we went back on February 14.  Results were only given from 9-10 in the morning, so there wasn’t any need to arrive at dawn or determine who I needed to form up behind.  The line started forming right about 9 and moved along rapidly.  My paper was marked especial (special) so the clerk had to go to a different file for my results, but it didn’t take more than a few minutes and voila! There they were.

Since Dr. J said I should come and see him after the results were in, I asked the clerk how I should go about it.  She said that I should go to Archivos, but I told her that Dr. J said I should make the appointment without going to Archivos.  She said that his office was down the hall in Consulting Room 5 and that I should go there and ask.  So I did.  I stopped at the nurse’s table and told them I wanted to see Dr. J.  The nurse said he was in today but that he was using Consulting Room 9.  I asked if there was some sort of list I needed to be on and she said no.  So I went there and parked my butt in the seat directly in front of the door.

I waited there maybe 5 minutes, then thought that perhaps I needed to do something else, so I went to Archivos and asked.  The lady there gave me a blue ficha and told me to go to the nurse’s desk.  The nurse at the nurse’s desk sent me back to the nurse’s table.  I handed my blue ficha over and the nurse wrote my name on the list, and then checked my weight, height and blood pressure.  This time, I felt I was on track.  She sent me back to Consulting Room 9 to wait.  I was #4.

I went out to tell my husband how I was progressing.  He didn’t want to stay, but since I was already there, I wanted to see if I could make this my final trip for the permanent prescription and not lose another day of work.  So I went back to the waiting area and spent some time studying my TSH results.  Everything was within normal range with my taking 1 pill a day, so that seemed promising.  The blood samples had been sent to the hospital in Leon and back.

Dr. J began seeing patients at 10 a.m.  I was called at 10:40.  Meanwhile, I spent some time talking with an elderly lady who also wanted to see Dr. J about her family member who was just admitted into urgencias (emergency room).  I told her it might be prudent to get a ficha from Archivos, which she went and did.

I sat down and Dr. J remembered my case.  I expect gringa patients are far and few between, so I stand out a bit. He looked over the results and agreed that I needed to keep taking one pill a day.  He gave me a prescription for 2 boxes of 100 pills each and explained that I would need to come back every 6 months for a new TSH blood workup.  That didn’t surprise me any, but I had to restrain a sigh.  He told me to go to Archivos and make an appointment for 6 months, then go to the lab and make an appointment for 6 months, then go to the pharmacy for the pills.

I thanked him and left the consulting room planning on doing just that to find Archivos were closed.  I went to the lab and found a line out the wazoo.  I went to the pharmacy and got my voucher for the pills.  They didn’t have the pills in stock, of course, but I could get it from another pharmacy with this voucher.

I went back outside and told my husband how things were going.  We agreed that it would be better if he came another day to make the appointments and pick up the medicine.  It was just too much for now.

All’s well that ends well since now I will be able to get the blood test, doctor consultation and medication free for the 3 years we have Seguro Popular.  I can’t imagine going through this process if I were really ill, though. I’d more than likely die in the waiting room, but maybe that’s the point.

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