Health care services in Guatemala City appear to be excellent.  We have had two experiences, with two separate doctors, working in two different clinics.  In the first, John was treated for an intestinal bacterial infection.  He was thoroughly examined in a clean and friendly facility that has a complete laboratory on site.  Results of his lab tests were known in about thirty minutes. His internist was a physician born in Texas and married to a Guatemalan. For the second, Chichi was treated for what turned out to be bursitis. This was at a teaching hospital.  The orthopedist studied at least four years in Guatemala, then five or six years in Louisville. The fee of the orthopedist was less than $30.00, as was the fee for the X-Ray which was handed to Chichi and to the physician in barely ten minutes.  

A large difference between American medicine and medicine as practiced here is a sense of personal care and attention.  Most boaters have found easy, on time access to facilities and professionals.  Usually, the physician comes personally to the waiting room to greet the patient and to escort him/her back to a private office.  A sense of hurry is not present.  Two possible reasons:  The first is that the culture of Guatemala and other Central and South American nations is very cordial and personal.  If nothing else, Guatemala is a nation of smiles.  Meanwhile, though, we noticed that waiting rooms were not full, perhaps indicating lower demand-per-professional than we know in the states.  We have been tempted to conclude that excellent health care is available only to the higher classes, for we have observed directly that people in the mountains do not have access to first class care.  A perhaps superficial difference between here and the states is that facilities themselves seem more personal.  The appearance of empty sterility, so common in offices of physicians and in hospitals of The U.S., is not prominent here.  Instead, wood interiors, pictures of Guatemalan people and places, and warm lighting schemes predominate.  In addition, we never were asked to wait alone in an examining room.