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Free Medical Advice sponsored by
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Got an ache or pain? Have a question about a prescription or over-the-counter drug? Looking for some FREE medical advice?
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Question:
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| Dear Madam, Sir, I might be moving to Moscow with my family. We have 4 kids, daughter 12, son 9 and 2 girls both 7 years old. The question is what can I expect from medical services in Moscow. Is there any reason to question the availability of good and instant treatment. Are there reasons to fly out of Moscow for treatmnent abroad. In general What are the concerns for dedicated mother with 4 children. Furthermore if you by chance know an expat family with children living in Moscow I would like to contact them. Although this is not a medical question, I would appreciate your reply. Thanks in advance, JLo
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Answer:
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| Thank you for your inquiry. The questions you pose have in some respects almost as many answers as there are expatriates in Moscow! Our expectations of health care depend very much on our experiences of health care in the past, in our "own" country and our own system, but also on the urgency of any present perceived need. More than for most services, medical "consumers" form opinions on the quality of the services based usually on little or no prior contact, on contacts made by friends and relatives, or on contacts made usually in different medical circumstances. This is common because almost none of us want to be consumers of medical care... When we suddenly need care in an emergency, culturally dissonant differences and unfamiliar approaches to the provision of medical care can assume great and sometimes life-threatening importance; when in day-to-day life such differences are otherwise readily tolerated or go unremarked. Our opinion is that while most medical services are both available and appropriately found in Moscow, there are still some services which can only be accessed abroad and / or for which a patient should return home or seek treatment in the nearest regional center of medical excellence. International SOS supports this view with a dedicated air ambulance we have based in Moscow for the needs of our clients. While the vast majority of the cases we assist with can be and are handled satisfactorily in Moscow, and the air ambulance is as useful to retrieve people from outlying provinces to Moscow as it is to move emergency cases to other international centers, there will always be some cases that are better dealt with offshore. If you could e-mail me off-list at renedej@internationalsos.com, we will forward your e-mail to one of our families with children who assist with 'orientation' to this interesting and exciting city. Hope this helps
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