Bureaucracy

This post was originally published on golifelog.com.

I did a 12-hour paramedic shift today. We had a mother with her 3-year-old that had fevers for the past four days even though they got some medication.

It is important to add that they are fugitives that just arrived in Austria. Two adults, three children living in a makeshift room of 15 square metres.

No problem, we’ve got a good social system here and if you have to leave your country for awful reasons, there is a net to catch you.

We arrived at the hospital and the check took a few minutes. My co-driver and I decided that we will wait so we can drive them back. Minutes go by, we have a coffee and the examination is done. I told the Nurse we needed a document to drive them back home (we need one for every transport, so that the organisation I drive for gets compensated by health insurance).

The nurse goes to the doctor to get the documents, but the doctor holds. “Couldn’t they get back home via taxi or bus? Maybe the health insurance won’t cover the drive”. I can’t blame the doctor for that line, as they get a lot of pressure to save money wherever possible. If the drive wouldn’t be paid for by insurance, the state would jump in or the hospital / the organisation I drive for would sit on the cost. I once again explain that they don’t speak German or English, and they don’t live in a city. No bus would be available now and, obviously, there wouldn’t be money for a taxi drive.

The doctor signs the documents, and we are on our way again. We stopped at a pharmacy so we could get the designated medicine for the small one.

And my brain just breaks. Every employed Austrian pays 21% of their pay cheque for our health insurance. And we are talking about if we finance a much-needed drive for someone clearly incapable of doing it on their on or paying it.

I’m just disgusted how some things are running over here sometimes. There is a quite strong worded sentence for my feeling: “Ich kann gar nicht so viel essen wie ich kotzen möchte” (I can’t even eat as much as I want to vomit).

Oh, and if we hadn’t got a document, I would have taken them home anyways. I drove in the same direction to hour home base. I guess the “worst” that could have happened, is getting a call on Monday why the drive was done or that I might have to pay for the drive (I agreed with my coworker that we would split the bill in that case). I’m still voluntary, and they can’t easily get rid of me (and they also won’t as they need the workforce).