I’ve been working with our community health center and its staff for several years now. The team has been great to work with. They understand the medical needs of San Carlos Apache so well that I’ve rarely had to tell them to “just do it.” They don’t need any further explanation on the reasons why the clinic is so busy, and I don’t have to.
The clinic is one of the best in the city, and not only is it one of the best, it’s also one of the cheapest. The most important thing though, and this is really what’s important to all of us, is that the clinic gets to treat its patients the best way possible. The fact that they’ve managed to do that for just over a decade means a lot to us.
Ive been going to this clinic for 17 years now, and Ive never had to tell them to just do it. Ive been to a lot of clinics around the city, and its always a very similar experience. You get to a nice, sterile, well lit, and pleasant waiting room. The people waiting for you seem nice and they come and go as you’re waiting. It’s always a very friendly and welcoming place.
We thought of this clinic as our healthcare before we even knew what it was. You see, we live in san carlos and we dont have a single doctor in the city. Our closest hospital is some 30 minute drive away. We had to see this place on our own. We had to find a place that had a doctor and were able to treat our patients.
The san carlos clinic itself is quite nice. It has an open air area to sit and talk, and has a very nice pool and a lovely fountain, as well as a pharmacy and an ophthalmologist. We had a very nice conversation with the doctor, and he explained our options to us. We were so happy that we were able to get the treatment that we needed. As they were preparing to put us in a room, they made us feel very at ease.
Most clinics in the city we came to had a very narrow and claustrophobic space with a very narrow and claustrophobic window. We were able to get a room that was more spacious and had a wider window, and also had a room with a kitchen and bathroom.
The doctor made us feel very comfortable with him, and the room was very clean with a very high standard of hygiene. It also had a very high standard of care, with a very high standard of comfort. These are all things that we take for granted in the US. In Mexico, that’s not the case.
As a person who has been in Mexico a few times, I can attest that the healthcare system is terrible. People often go to the doctor because they think they need a checkup or they are sick and in need of care. It is not uncommon to have an entire checkup that is completely unnecessary and in many cases, the doctor will just say “Oh, it’s nothing”. This is something we are very against.
To some degree, this is still the case in the US, but when you have a health insurance plan, you are much more likely to have a “doctor” (which is now a government entity) than a “healthcare”. Why? Because in the US, you are almost always required to pay cash directly to the doctor. In Mexico, you are required to pay a fee to your local government for the services you need.
Why do I say this? Because this is a really big problem in Mexico. It’s absolutely terrible that most government healthcare entities in Mexico are private companies. It’s hard to see anything positive in that. They are almost always the same people who decide what will get paid for services. It’s not the doctors who are in charge of the payment. It’s the private insurance companies.
