Monday, March 7, 2011

Hello Doctor

We don't have a doctor yet. I have been trying to get recommendations for a good doctor since arriving and just keep meeting dead ends. Finally, an international parents meet up group member responded to my bulletin board posting (who knew that Meet Up was still alive and kicking? I sort of associated it with the Howard Dean campaign and haven't looked back since). The kind respondent gave me the words "good doctor in Amager" or something close to that in Danish and suggested I put them into Google.

I did it. I Googled. And Google led me to an online forum where people were discussing doctors and  several Danes recommended a doctor a couple blocks from our home. (Thank goodness for Google Translate). This was a major breakthrough. Why I hadn't thought of this particular strategy sooner, I am not sure. I had done plenty of searches in English for "good doctors in Copenhagen" and other things, but not much came up. (Obviously.)

In Denmark, there aren't really pediatricians or other specialists, there are family doctors and the whole family goes to one doctor. There are also very specific hours that doctors' offices can be called and visited, etc. We tried calling our potential new doctor all morning with no luck, so this afternoon, I swung by. The woman at the front desk answered all my questions, told me that the practice was accepting new patients, how to call to book an appointment (and when) and as I was leaving informed me that she was the doctor! Wow, an actual doctor at the front desk of the clinic? Apparently secretaries only work a few hours a day and after that the doctors are left to run the clinics themselves.

It's a huge relief to have found a doctor, and met her. She was very nice and the office was clean and new and it's literally a five minute walk from home. We really miss our pediatrician in Washington, DC. She is amazing. If Dr. Kit Christiansen is even half as amazing, we're in good hands.

2 comments:

  1. YAY for finding a doctor! What sweet relief. Do you have to navigate health insurance next? How on earth does that work?

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  2. Congrats! Is it just me or was Kit Christiansen (or something very close) one of those American Dolls ;-)

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