Fail

Ok, so I failed in my attempt to navigate the Argentinean public health system. Well, actually, I gave up. Bright and early this morning I went to the sixth floor of the hospital, just like they told me. At that moment I remembered what I actually already knew, but had forgotten: public = bureaucracy.

On the sixth floor they told me that in order to get my form filled out I would have to go make an appointment. They sent me down to the ground floor to talk with a Sr. Jorge Perrone in consultorio 6. In consultorio 6, I discovered that Sr. Perrone was sick and not coming in, so I was sent to the "window in the hall where there's a long line" to talk to them. At the window in the hall where there's a long line, they said "Oh, no, you need to go to the clinic at the bus station to make an appointment there." A kind woman guided me across the canal to the outpatient clinic where I was instructed to take a number. When they called my number (45 minutes later) the woman at the window took one look at my form and shook her head emphatically. "No, you need to go to the health center in your neighborhood." Since this was not a life or death scenario, and since I'm an outsider, I could find the whole thing amusing (and by hour 2, just a little annoying).

I left, trying to decide whether I should try to figure out how to find my local health center or whether I should pay the $20 US to be done with it. As I walked toward my school, the empty waiting room of a private doctor's office beckoned. And what did I do? I caved. In just 30 minutes, I had my form completely filled out and I am now official, ready for CIGMA gimnasio.