Uppsala, Sweden
So today, we started our rotation. We walked by the river and around to the other side and up the road a piece ;) which totaled approximately 2000km (or about 1.5 miles, I think). It was chilly out, but it got a lot warmer by the time we made it to the Biomedical Center (BMC). I don't have a picture of the building because we were more concerned about figuring out where we were going and getting there on time rather than taking photos, but I'll take some tomorrow when we go back. As luck would have it, we got there about 10 minutes early!
We called Sofia from the hallway, as the lab corridors are locked. She took us to her office which was very spacious, and we talked for a bit about how healthcare and pharmacy services are organized in Sweden. As it turns out, there are three levels of government: the municipalities, the city councils, and Parliament. The city councils are responsible for the delivery of healthcare. Similar to the United States, there are conservative and liberal parties who can be voted into government offices. At any time, both parties can be in office, with majorities in different areas, making conflict on issues pretty common.
There has recently been a turnover in Swedish pharmacies from being owned by a single company--Apoteket AB--to being sold off to independent buyers. The advantages of a single company owning and operating the pharmacies was that pharmacies could be run in much smaller traffic areas (the far north where few people live), yet still be paid equivalently. There were previously 900 pharmacies with approximately 5,000 pharmacists and prescriptionists employed throughout the system. This allowed for a lot of one-on-one time with the pharmacists or prescriptionists. Pharmacies also sold little more than drugs under this system. The pharmacies are being sold one at a time, for a total of 100 pharmacies to be sold to independent buyers. Additionally, pharmacies can now be opened by anyone. As you can see, this will most likely lead to underserved populations (again, in the far north), as pharmacies in these areas will not be as profitable as those in highly populated areas. Additionally, pharmacies have already begun to sell additional goods such as beauty products, as similar to the US pharmacies.
Sofia and her colleagues--Christina, Hannah, Andy, and another lady(?)--took us out to lunch at a place called Bla (pronounced Blua, as there is a little circle over the A, which denotes an "oo-ah" sound). This word means "blue." They served lots of tasty food there. I had a greek salad, and Josh had some kind of pork and potato dish which was very fancy-looking. At this point, we realized that we may have gotten the shaft with the Indian food, BUT at least it was only one meal... Sadly, I do not have pictures of our food, partially because I was starving, and partially because I didn't want to look like the American tourist in front of our rotation leaders =) However, Josh and I will probably go back there tomorrow or Thursday, so I'll do a reenactment, no doubt.
We walked back through the university campus, or part of it. Most of the town of Uppsala is actually part of the university campus, it would seem. It's very widespread. Oh, and as an additional tidbit. There are 35-40,000 students in the university; there are approximately the same number of people employed by the university; and this does not include the vast number of people employed by the university hospital. The total population of Uppsala is approximately 200,000 which means over half of the population is somehow associated with the university. I also don't really have any pictures of that, as we were pretty tired--or at least I was. This whole time change this has been a big adjustment for me =/
For dinner, we walked down the main street in Uppsala, which we are conveniently located on. The Kungsangsgatan (your pronunciation is probably as good as mine...idk). The shops roll up pretty early around here, around 8:00pm. We went by the ICA grocery. I got a couple of giant bottles of water. For those of you who know my love of water, this probably doesn't surprise you. Then we contemplated eating at the McD's, but found a place called Jalla open instead.
Jalla had an excellent selection of gyros and pizzas. I got a veggie pizza which included cheese, green olives, pineapple, mushrooms, onions, and paprika. It also called for asparagus, but I had them hold the asparagus--who puts asparagus on pizza?! Josh got the falafel pizza which basically looked like a Philly cheese steak pizza. They were both very tasty, and very reasonably priced (75 kronor apiece). 75 kronor is $10. That also included a drink. The thing about carbonated beverages that saddens me here in Sweden is the lack of ice. I guess it must be an American thing, but I like my drinks cold! And nowhere can you get ice in this town...anyhow, for your viewing pleasure, I've included photos of our pizzas below. And we had plenty leftover for breakfast pizza and maybe even lunch tomorrow...or maybe a midnight snack if I can't sleep again ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment