Policlinico Umberto I

I’m not one of those people who leave lengthy reviews but had to share this! This review is for anyone visiting this hospital who is not Italian.
If you are seeking medical attention and are American/​anything not Italian do not come to this place you will be pushed to the back of the list/​not even serviced.
I crashed a scooter and banged up my knee pretty bad. My knee and ankle were swollen, bruised, and cut so bad to the point where I could not walk. I knew nothing was broken but I wanted to make sure I didn’t tear anything/​rupture a bakers cyst. I came here with my boyfriend and asked about how long should this take they said not long. After being checked in they separated us and told him he had to go to another waiting room. I walked to the waiting room I was directed to and sat down. After an hour of waiting by myself and looking around and noticing everyone else in this room had their family/​companions with them I walked to the front and asked the man who helped me why can I not have my friend in here when everyone else does? He spouted something off in Italian and I did catch «…Classico Americano» lol. Then they let my boyfriend come sit with me??? Two more hours pass by and a nurse has not even come to check my vitals.
Another hour passes by, by this time it has been 4 hours and no one has even seen me. And several people that have checked In to the ER much later than me have already been helped and left??? There was another couple from the UK that had gotten there 30 min prior to us and had not been helped yet either… Getting pretty anxious I asked the woman at the desk what is going on? She proceeds to tell me that there is 3 people ahead of me which is bullshit because I watched all these people (at least 8) check in after us and receive care before us and leave. My boyfriend being fed up as well tries to ask what is going on and no one will help us. Now it has been 5 hours of waiting with not one single thing accomplished. We both go to the entrance and start asking people for a wheel chair… People tell us no, some ignore us, others tell us they don’t have any… no wheelchairs in a hospital lol! Finally I asked a paramedic can you please please give us a wheel chair. We finally get one and my boyfriend sneaks us out the back door in it. Of course no one is paying attention to us so leaving in it was a breeze. At least I have some mobility now…
If this is what free healthcare looks like I’d much rather pay for it in the States. Ciao!

While we were racing to grab a bus my mother fell and hit her chin on the sidewalk. It was pretty bad and we knew she would need stitches. There was a taxi driver nearby and he said that it would be better for us as Americans to call an ambulance and not to take a taxi. He was right, the ambulance driver helped us all the way through registration and was very helpful with the language barrier. (I had a small translation book, and it helped that her injury was visual not internal)
We were checked in fairly quickly, it helps to have your passport on you. We were then taken to another waiting room. From there we were taken upstairs to yet another waiting room. I asked to use a restroom but the staff just looked at me like they’ve never heard of a bagno and as if I was asking to find my spaceship. Finally another patient pointed me in the right direction.
They wouldn’t let me go in the room with my mother while she was getting the stitches which I thought was not very nice. I wanted to be there to hold her hand, but I guess it wasn’t something she could die of so it was ok. My mom said that it was quick, but painful as stitches go.
We were in and out of there and back on the streets in about an hour and a half. Pretty good timing compared to the US emergency room wait time.