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I live in Germany. It can be a bit complicated...
I was encouraged to sign a "contract" with my GP saying I should always go to them first with any non-emergency issue and they'll refer me to a specialized doctor. The idea is to have all my medical info in one place, which makes sense.
So I was at work, pulling open a desk to wire up all the IT stuff, when something in my finger snapped.
I reported it to my team leader. He gave me an ice pack and told a colleague to drive me to the doctor.
The colleague asked me where to drive to, and I honestly had no idea. This is the first issue. I was expected to decide: Is this an emergency? It's not life-threatening, but it hurt and started to swell quickly. How time-critical is it, in order not to lose use of the finger? Should I go to the hospital? Do I need an X-Ray? How the fuck should I know before a doctor looked at it?
So I googled "X-Ray clinic" in my home town and found a big one. I waited in the phone queue while we started driving. Eventually I got through and they told me they only accept patients with referrals from a doctor.
So we re-routed to my GP, which is half an hour drive. When we got there and had found a parking spot, a sign at the door said that the doctor's practice had moved to a new address the week before.
We drove to the new address. I talked to the receptionist. She told us that since this is a work accident, I need to visit my workplace's approved doctor. She asked which one that is, and which insurance is responsible. I had no idea.
So I called my team leader. He also didn't know. He said he'd find out and call back. We waited.
After 15 minutes, we had the right address. It was a 30 minute drive in the other direction.
When we got there and had found a parking spot, a sign at the door informed us that the practice had recently moved.
We drove to the new address, which was another 30 minute drive, but within walking distance of my workplace. I was finally admitted to get looked at.
By then the ice pack had long melted, my finger was swollen, hurting and throbbing, and the receptionist told me she can't give me a new ice pack, only a doctor can. She then handed me a 4 page document in small print to fill out.
So I sat there, with a swollen, throbbing hand, filling out all kinds of info about me, my medical history, allergies, my work place info, insurance number, how I got injured, whether I had reported the injury, etc.
Then I had to wait an hour, was given an X-Ray, and 10 minutes of a doctor's time, who told me they can't see what it is. I should come back in a week if it doesn't get better, and then they'd give me a CT scan.
A week later, it was not fully healed but much better, so I didn't go back. That was 6 months ago. I can use the finger normally and have no pain, but I can still feel it a little.
I can't decide if I am intensely jealous because your standard of health care and worker protection is so high that you and the people you work with, as working adults, don't already know all of the forms of emergency care and which one is likely the least worst option for a given injury type.
Or am I more jealous of the idea that you went to emergency services for a minor injury like a sprained ligament in your hand, and your biggest irritation is that you didn't know where to go to get it treated and not at being stressed out of your mind fighting with providers and insurance over who has to pay this massive debt.
That's genuinely the thing I'm most thankful for.
No matter where I go to get treated, I just scan my insurance card and all the financial stuff is taken care of.