Favorite Thing: Unfortunately, David developed an angry rash the day we arrived in Tehran, but at least it meant we were able to sample the delights of the Iranian health system. Never again will I say that western health services are the best! This was Iranian ‘hospitality’ at its best.
At 06:00 I took David down to the reception of the hotel, to enquire about seeing a doctor. One of the staff hailed a taxi for us, and explained to the taxi driver where to take us. At the 24 hour emergency ward, we were immediately seen by a nurse, who took his blood pressure, pulse and temperature. As soon as she had finished, a doctor was available to see him. Whilst he was examining David, a nurse beckoned me over to the desk – there was a phone call for me: the receptionist from the hotel checking that we got there OK, that we were being seen by a doctor and if there was anything else we needed, to let him know. David was given some steroid and antihistamine tablets as well as some steroid cream. We collected the prescription and arranged for a taxi back to the hotel. We were gone for exactly an hour. Last time I attended A&E in my home town of Bristol, we were there for six hours!
The doctor we saw spoke excellent English, and suggested that David would benefit from seeing a specialist, and arranged for an appointment – at 14:00 that same day! In Bristol you would be lucky to be able to see a consultant the same year, let alone the same day!
The whole process, including a general doctor, a specialist and three lots of medicines, cost us around $10. We were extremely impressed with the medical service in Iran, and very relived when David’s rash got better after a few days. He never did find out exactly what it was, all the doctor could say was a severe allergic reaction. We’ll never know what he reacted to.
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on Jun 14, 2007
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