Last week I had to go to the ER in a hospital of Lisbon because I twisted my big toe during a karate practice. As I was entering I was thinking to myself that maybe all the bad things I've heard all my life about the Portuguese Health System wore exaggerated, and that my passage through the hospital would be brief… I couldn't have thought something more distant of reality.

As I entered, I realized that I would have to pay €6.90 just to be admitted… Ok, I know that it isn't too much money, but there are two huge problems… the first one: In Portugal there is almost 1 million people that have pensions that don't reach €250. The second: the Portuguese constitution says the health system should be free.

Let's proceed… I just had a twisted toe, but 1 minute after I entered, enters a guy that was saying that he was having a beginning of a CVA (cardio-vascular accident). Instead of being assisted immediately, he was instructed to go and pay his admission. He entered the queue I was in and if I didn't let him have my place he would had to stay behind me, and as I wasn't the only one in the queue, a women that was also at the queue refused to let him pass, and he had to wait until it reached is turn. There was a moment when we wore about seven on the queue… and there was just one guy attending us.

After paying I had to go to triage, so I could be given a colour that would define my waiting time. I was given green (that should be the colour that would wait more), and an old lady behind me was given orange (there was yellow between us). We both went to the X-ray witting room… my name was called first (after an hour and thirty minutes), I took the X-ray and then was asked to wait in the same waiting room until a doctor had time to see me. As I found myself a place on the wall to stand (there wore no available chairs), I looked around and the old lady was still there waiting to be called to the X-ray room.

I was called to a doctor about 40 minutes after my X-ray was taken. He asked to show my foot, and looked at it 10 seconds... than said my foot was ok, but I should do some physiotherapy because all the ligaments of the toe wore affected. I asked if I could do it in a public clinic, and he replied that there isn't such a thing… According to him, there wore only two ways… I had to pay for it or I had insurance… as I didn't have insurance…

When I left his office I got lost on my way out, as there wore no signs indicating exit. I found myself again in the waiting room of the x-rays and as I was asking a nurse the way out, I heard a name being called to the x-ray room and saw the old lady that entered the same time I did going in the room (Yes she had ORANGE … and I had Green). The nurse said to me that before I leave I had to pay for the x-rays.

I went to the balcony and I was presented a bill of almost 10€ of x-rays. I looked at the price table and there it was… each x-ray €1.70… I looked again at the bill and there was x-rays on the foot (2), to the arm (2) and to the wrist (2)… I complained and after 30 minutes I had a bill of just two X-rays (unfortunately 30% of the Portuguese population is analphabetic, and would have paid almost €10).

So I walked out after 3 hours and 10 minutes… with no solution presented by the public heath system for my problem, and with €10 less in the wallet…