Nepalka in Croatia: Doctors reject me, and I need help! It is impossible to find a doctor

I need a doctor, I have some health problems, but wherever I call them, they reject me, tells us foreign workers, Nepalka, to whom the doctor needs it, but he has been looking for him for a long time or who is not able to enroll as a new patient.

She was at the emergency room at the hospital, they did what they could do there, but there is a health problem that seeks further treatment and monitoring, and she cannot, and the gynecologist, and the gynecologist, and she cannot, everyone rejecting her. And it’s not the only one, we still complain about the same problem. Like anyone in Croatia, foreign workers have to seek free doctors themselves, no one helps them. The employer only has an obligation to report them to mandatory health insurance.

They have to look for free doctors themselves

Foreign workers, finding a doctor, also make a linguistic barrier. We convinced ourselves – we called the HZZO to inquire for a woman from Nepal, how to find a family doctor and gynecologist free to enroll in patients, because he has health insurance. We are told that all the free doctors are listed on their page, the foreign worker « just » to find, first, the section of the « Wallpaper Persons », then to « Women’s Health », where all doctors will be shown to her. Also for a family doctor or dentist. Everything is on Croatian. In addition to the doctors where there is a green mark. However, the telephone number of the office is not listed, so foreign workers should find it themselves, and then call it and ask if they can apply.

It’s looking for a lot Free time, and foreign workers, as a rule, have it in the afternoon, when only part of a doctor, or on weekends, when the office is closed. The problem is the language because not all foreign workers have to, as well as in the offices or the centrals of the Health Centers, know English, good enough to understand each other. It is not always easy for foreign workers to pronounce the names of our doctors, when they have to explain what they need. It’s just enough to imagine what it would be like to seek a doctor in Nepal, and everything gets clearer.

Instead of telephoning, they can send an inquiry mail, but first mailing addresses have to find themselves on the Internet themselves, they are not listed. They also have to go to the doctor to the said address, personally, which requires the most free time, and again only at the time when the doctor works. The HZZO search engine is also not stated. All together complicated for Croatian citizens, and especially for foreigners who do not speak Croatian. In addition to their free time, this is an additional problem for them. In addition, especially when they are just coming to Croatia, they have no Croatian acquaintances or friends, who could help them seek, inquire with their doctor …

There are only a few justified reasons why a free doctor can refuse to take a new patient. Foreign citizenship is by no means a reason for rejection, not even the ignorance of the Croatian language, it is only – discrimination.

Contracting doctors can reject the enrollment of a new insured person only if they already have patients more than the prescribed maximum allows it, then if there is a disorder of mutual relations between the chosen doctor and the insured person, or if the insured person is expressed by the prohibition of approaching the selected doctor, they are responsible for 24 hours of the Croatian Health Insurance Institute. The elected doctor must not refuse the choice of a insured person or another reason, concluded.

We have asked a few questions to the CIHI and the Ministry of Health, noting that foreign workers have a problem finding a doctor. We asked, among other things, and how to get to a list of free doctors and their contacts, are there any tools that can help them and how, because of language barriers, foreign workers can explain in contacts what they need, and enroll. To this, the latest question, the HZZO did not answer us, we were just orally, inquiring about the worker from Nepal, we came up with information about the search engine, which is in Croatian. The Ministry of Health did not even answer us, so it seems that the workers are left to themselves, there is no plan to find a doctor, and how to treat, everything is happening – spontaneous.

The employer is obliged to report all workers to mandatory health insurance, including foreign workers, the CIHI replies.

– The insured persons have the legal right of choice of doctors in general/family medicine activities, women’s health care, preschool health care and dental health care. The selection procedure or change of elected primary health care doctor is equal to all insured persons, the CIHI says. The doctor, he continues, can be selected in many ways: in the office, so that the doctor you want to choose an e-exhibition is delivered to processing in the electronic system of the CIHI. The second way is « through the HZZO services for the e-Citizens », and the third to bring to the CIHI completed, signed and certified by the printing press by the newly elected doctor, which the authorized HZZO worker brings to the Electronic Business System of the CIHI.

But there is still a problem for finding a free doctor in general, which is the hardest step for foreign workers.

The CIHI states, however, that if the elected doctor does not confirm the choice of a person or for an unjustified reason within eight days of receipt of the request, he will decline the choice of ex officio.

– The insured person who believes that for an unjustified reason is denied his right to a free election of a concrete doctor of primary health care medicine, or he believes that she has been unjustifiably rejected free choice, to help and call for treatment to the competent regional office of the HZZO, they state.