Hospital Universitario Hospiten Sur

Missed diagnose of a broken neck, can you believe it? In januari I had an paragliding accident on Tenerife. While landing I fell 8 meters on my neck. Terrible neck pain. The ambulance was called, I was stabilized and brought to the Hospiten-Sur hospital. My fingers were tingling. They made a Pet-scan and X-ray: no fractures in the neck, a fracture in a thoraxic vertebra. They didn’t make an MRI because I told them I had metal fixations on my sternum, because of a by-pass-surgery. The fracture was surgical fixated. After a couple of days on the IC-unit I went to the regular hospital unit. About the hospital stay later. As soon as I could stand up I went for a shower. When I looked down I got a terrible pain in my neck and later that night in my shoulder. I couldn’t lift my arms. I thought it was the contusion and distorsion of the neck with edema and nerve irritation. Or maybe a muscle tear. They gave me Fentanyl for the pain. When I was back in the Netherlands my neck and shoulders didn’t get much better so I asked for an extra X-ray: big alarm, my 5th cervical vertebra was broken off and gliding forward, giving compression of my spinal chord (see photo). When they had diagnosed that in the first couple of weeks they could have fixed that with a ventral fixation of 2 vertebra. Now they had to fixate 4 vertebras with a dorsal surgery with a lot of pain, shoulder/arm- muscles that are week and loss of mobility. Recovery will take another half year and I doubt it will recover completely. About the hospital stay: the IC-stay was a disaster: units closed with a curtain and 2 glass walls. 20 hours noise per day and when they lit the light in your neighbors unit at night, you bath in bright light as well. All the monitors give warning and alarm signals very loud, for instance when the blood pressure is a bit high or low. They don’t do anything with the signals, just let them beep for hours from 6 or even 10 monitors on the unit at the same time, horrible. The food on the IC-unit was also horrible: just a dry white bun with a little fruit jam or a tasteless pumpkin soup or dry tortilla (photo). On the regular care unit they gave me an 50 years old, rusty hospital bed (photo) that made a terrible sharp squeaking sound (listen to the video) when going up or down. Horrible for my roommate. When I could walk I saw that there were plenty of normal hospital beds available but the refused to change my bed, very inhospitable. So in short: they don’t live up to European standards. Try not to end up in hospital when you are on Tenerife.

I went to Urgent Care because I suspected conjunctivitis (pink eye) and explained my symptoms at reception. I was registered and told I would be examined, but first I had to pay a €400 deposit. At no point did the receptionist mention that there is an ophthalmologist in the building next door, which would clearly be the appropriate specialist for eye problems.

Instead, I was seen by a doctor in Urgent Care who did not speak English, so the conversation had to go through a translator. The entire consultation lasted about three minutes. The doctor briefly shone a small flashlight into my eyes, honestly weaker than most phone flashlights and then told me my eyes were not red and that he could only prescribe basic eye drops that I could buy at any pharmacy anyway.

I explained that I already had normal eye drops from my own ophthalmologist and that, if anything, I would need antibiotic drops if there was a possible infection. He then said he could check whether there was a real eye specialist in the building next door.

After this extremely short consultation I was sent out again. For this “examination”, which essentially consisted of a few seconds of shining a light into my eyes without any real diagnosis I was charged €240.

When we went to the other building next door, we were told that I would have to register again and pay another €200 deposit just to see the ophthalmologist. Naturally we asked what exactly the €240 we had just paid for if no proper examination had even taken place.

After a long discussion with the staff, we practically had to beg the doctor who had just seen me earlier to prescribe something. In the end, he prescribed antibiotic eye drops, the exact same type that had already been prescribed to me by my ophthalmologist in Vienna during a previous eye infection.

So essentially I had to diagnose and medicate myself, and paid €240 just to get a doctor’s signature on a prescription. The eye drops themselves cost €2.40 at the pharmacy.

Until now I still don’t even know whether I actually had an infection, because the doctor apparently couldn’t determine that. The only way to find out would have been to leave a total deposit of around €600, and who knows how much more I would have been charged just to see the actual specialist.

For comparison: I once had a much more severe eye infection in Bali (Indonesia) and was treated by competent ophthalmologists there, including proper eye pressure measurements and a full examination. I went twice and paid about €70 in total. Somehow, in what many call a “third-world country,” I received far more professional care than here.

My recommendation: if you don’t know what to do with your money and happen to have €400–€600 to spare, you can either throw it out of the window or leave it here as a deposit and receive little to no actual help.

This is a university hospital with no visible training in place. I was left with trainee nurses trying to insert IV in me, unsuccessfully, and simply walking out and leaving equipment on the bed. Then a qualified nurse came and did it in 1 go. The trainee was unaccompanied. No training involved at all. I needed to supply my own insulin because they didn't have mine. I asked for it to be put in a fridge and it was put in a freezer making it dangerous and unusable. I was told by a qualified nurse to let it defrost, this is very dangerous. I had to send out for more at a cost of €112. Most of the nurses had a very bad attitude and spent most of their time on social media and shrugged shoulders if you asked for anything. 2 nurses were very good, Mariana and Barbara. Also a cleaner Jessica was happy and friendly. One nurse was horrid. An older person with a long thin black ponytail. One night, with 4 fractured ribs and 2 fractured vertebrae on my right side, I somehow rolled in my sleep onto the very painful right side. I rang the bell for assistance because I was in so much pain and could not move myself and 2 nurses came. The nurse with the ponytail pulled by my right arm into a straight position which was the worst pain ever that made me scream out loudly. The other nurse had an expression on her face that said it all. She was horrified at her colleague who then told me to be quiet because other people were sleeping. There are several other issues that I will bring up with the appropriate people but be advised people. If you have an option, get a flight home and do not use this business. Ive sent a detailed email in response to the hospital reply over a week ago and not heard a word. Looks like they font care.

We have had 2 VERY BAD experiences with this hospital in 1 week. One my MIL broke her leg they said shattered her tibia. She was in there from 11.30 that night till 10pm the next night. They would not let her go and left a drip on her arm until insurance was sorted she had insurance there was an issue between hospital and insurance. First of all she showed an EU insurance card and they sneered and said we do not accept fortunately for her she had paid for other insurance.When she got home she had infact not only broke 1 part her fibia but near her foot and knee also the doctors back home could not believe this hospital completely missed this. It cost her €400 to be first seen in tenerife and 250€ for an X RAY and whatever else the insurance paid for her night stay. My baby boy got sick and A&E were very good i will give them that but once we were transfered to main hospital it was not nice. We paid €400 upfront to get him seen to. 2 days later we had to come back and another €400 was paid. The food was absolutely disgusting for a private hospital it was very little and not very nice. My boy needed IV antibiotics which he did get but he also had another drip in his arm that was not used so when antibiotic was finished I asked can he get up and walk around he is 1 years old and was stuck to a bed for hours. They told me he cannot. I had explained the drip was not on and blood was travelling up into the wire. They told me this is necessary as it means it is working...... I am no fool. This was to keep us there. The male nurse that night was very nice but the women nurses were so rude to us and if asked for anything they huffed and puffed. We were left alone in a room with my baby screaming strapped to a bed when he could have been let off for 10 minutes. The following day the drip was still in his arm and the bag was still full. His last antibiotic was 3am. We were still in the hospital till 3pm. I asked to leave at 10am and they said we need payment from your insurance which already got the go ahead before they started as they would not admit us to hospital until done so! When you have a sick baby the stress levels is alot and all this hospital done was care about money money money. I do not recommend and if you ever need to go to hospital whilst in tenerife AVOID HERE!!!

Avoid at all costs! I went with my 4 year old daughter via ambulance. Interpreter on arrival was rude and abrupt and not at all compassionate or considerate. We waited on a sheet for the bed which arrived as a loose sheet which kept coming off the bed leaving it uncovered. After X-rays were clear we were told she needed to stay 24 hours for observation. We had nothing with us so I called my husband who was at the hotel to bring us bits for the night. He had our 6 year old son. I was told he had to drop bag at reception only as they would not let my son visit as he was under 12. So my worried husband couldn’t even see our daughter. We were admitted to our room around 3pm. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and around 5 she started asking for food again. I asked as we had nothing to be told yes it was coming. I continued at ask, it arrived just after 8pm. We were starving and the food was far less than desirable even for hospital food. See attached. We shared the dry bread roll. No observations were done on her during the night even although they had been worried about her oxygen levels. (Her breathing was fine so I did not chase). Breakfast was only a carton of apple juice and an orange. In the morning I was chasing for doctor as my daughter was much better after IV antibiotics, who did not arrive until just before 11am. When the doctor arrived we were told we could leave without follow up or medication, we only needed the medical report. They refused to take cannula off my daughter even after this until they had the medical report. I was chasing this in the hospital and also through our insurance and it took them just over 3 hours to write a simple report. In this time my daughter was starving only having had an orange, lunch came at 1 and we were not allowed anything sooner. My daughter was cold so I asked for the cannula to be taken off or at least detached so we could put her jumper on. This was also refused. On discharge they then said all of a sudden she did need medication and to continue antibiotics which we could get at any pharmacy. We were not told as it’s the weekend many are closed and after arriving back at our hotel we then needed another taxi to the next town to the nearest open pharmacy. All in all a terrible service, food awful and inedible even by hospital standards and an extreme lack in patient care. Avoid at all costs as they just seem to want money.