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A colonoscopy in February 2025 was meant to lead to a routine follow-up. Eighteen months on, a patient in Cádiz says that appointment still doesn’t exist, and neither does any record of the procedure that was supposed to trigger it. A colonoscopy, then months of silence In November 2024, a patient at Hospital Universitario de Puerto Real in Cádiz was referred to the Digestivo (digestive medicine) department, and a colonoscopy was prescribed. It was carried out on February 5, 2025, according to consumer group FACUA Cádiz. The patient then asked for the follow-up review about a week later, but more...

At a conference I attended recently in DC, I had the chance to show a lot of my colleagues around the downtown monuments. For them, many from other countries, seeing the Lincoln, the Washington, the Capitol, was once in a lifetime – for me, it was Tuesday. At one point, a German in the group – fatigue in his voice – asked me, “Tell me… How can Americans keep voting for Trump?” The term Trump was shorthand for Americans’ embracing nationalism and rejecting globalism, which seems oh-so backwards to our European cousins. I think he expected me to dance around...

Snap Chief Executive Evan Spiegel and his wife, supermodel Miranda Kerr, have helped pay off $550 million in medical debt for more than 261,000 Californians. The couple made a multimillion-dollar donation to Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that provides debt relief to people in financial need. The organization acquires medical debt in bulk from hospitals, physician groups, collection agencies and other groups for a fraction of the cost. "When someone you love is sick. All you want to do is focus on helping them get better," said Kerr, who is also the founder of skincare company KORA Organics, in a...

It starts with a call. A sore knee, a lingering cough, a changing mole - nothing urgent - but not quite ignorable. The receptionist is polite, but the first available appointment is three weeks away.For millions of Americans, health care begins with a wait. For many, walk-in clinics have replaced family medicine.“People have started to accept that,” Dr. Dorothy Serna, a primary care physician who left traditional practice for a concierge model, told The Epoch Times. “They think, ‘I can’t get my doctor, so I won’t even try. I’ll just go to urgent care. I’ll wait. I’ll Google it.’”Such scenarios...