I ask because I’ve just been “diagnosed” with a chronic illness (YMMV. Second opinions, yay! 🙄), and I am not kidding when I say that the public healthcare system where I am IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER MY LIFE…
Monthly treatments, for the rest of my life (not gonna happen), blood tests every month, MRIs every 3 months, specialist appointments every 4-6, “compulsory” flu and coof injections, etc, etc, etc…
Some of that I may put up with (if it helps). Some I will not.
But I just wonder… Can they actually force me?? This isn’t America, I know (it’s Aus. Aus is fucked.), but… Surely it’s my choice, right, unless they can prove I’m “not of sound mind”..? Surely..?!?
More scared of losing my freedoms than the fucking disease, tbh. By a long shot…
Sidenote: it's very murky here how nurses and reception staff defer to the doctors...
My parents both used medical privilege to get themselves into the hospital ward to "see me", even though I specifically did not want them to. And used that same "privilege" to get around various coof protocols re visitors, even though they don't actually work in the public system (which is where I was)...
Everything about this experience has been deeply murky, which makes me think... Medical care here could only possibly work that way because the catchment is so small, and everyone knows everyone. Like, I dunno, Rhode Island in the US, maybe, or even... Alaska? Or the Maritime Provinces in Canada..?
I dunno man, it's just very... Weird.
I had that before when my parents managed to get themselves admitted to my accommodation, multiple times, in two different cities, without my permission. One time, at Uni, Dad even manged to get the campus to allow him to stay the night, in my room, WITHOUT ME THERE, AND without my permission... And that was in a DIFFERENT state, where they weren't even "known"...
I fucking wish Australia (and Australians, perhaps more importantly) respected privacy and personal space more, y'know..? But anyway... :-/