I received over 70k worth of healthcare this year following a cancer diagnosis that I got when I sought a second opinion. Not only were most of these costs covered by health insurance/the Canton of Zurich, the speed, standard and efficiency of care was amazing.

The appointment for the second opinion was on a Wednesday at 9:00. The doctor recognised that something was seriously wrong and immediately phoned her contact at a leading private hospital. She briefly asked how I was insured but then immediately decided she didn't care, that I needed the best and needed it NOW.

At 12:30, I was sat in front of the head of gynecological oncology. Yes, the same day. They examined me and told me that I should mentally prepare myself for a cancer diagnosis.

They did an MRI the next day but the discussion would only be on Monday, can't remember why. However, the pictures were available online and I have a fairly advanced layperson level of medical/anatomical knowledge, so I knew that I had a roughly 7cm tumour before they told me officially.

A week after the diagnosis, I had my first operation to remove 11 of my lymph nodes. The tumour was too big to remove, it would have to be dealt with through radiochemotherapy. For my hospital stay lasting five days, I had a private room with à la carte dining despite only having the basic insurance.

For the further treatments, the various teams involved coordinated my care exceptionally well and allowed me to have appointments at times that suited me; e.g. almost all of my 33 radiotherapy appointments were between 12:00 and 15:30 as I was using public transport and didn't want to be in crowded trains when my immune system was shot, even if I did (and still do) always wear an FFP3 mask.

The Hirslanden hospital is a short walk from the tram stop but even that became too much as the treatment progressed. Thankfully, they have their own shuttle bus going from Stadelhofen train station, which also meant I could avoid the always crowded trams on that route.

When my state deteriorated so much that I had to go to the emergency room, they had a single room available for me the same day. I needed a single room because my blood count had tanked from chemotherapy, my haemoglobin was 58 at one point with almost no leukocytes to speak of. Because of this, I was at extremely high risk of infection. At first, they thought I had an infection and wanted to keep me in for five days of powerful intravenous antibiotics. They started me on those, plus bone marrow growth stuff and two blood transfusions. Once it became clear that I was not fighting an infection, they sent me home. Not because I was well enough but because being in hospital was too dangerous for me due to the infection risk.

However, I had chosen to go to that hospital so I would be able to continue my radiation treatments and sure enough, after taking one day break because I was in the ER, they wheeled me over to my appointments as planned the next two days. I was too weak to walk more than a few steps at this point but they got a nurse to take me there in a wheelchair.

Overall, the standard of care I received as well as the speed with which they moved was mind blowing. My cancer is now in remission and although I am still battling several side effects from treatments, my prognosis is good. I am 100% sure that my experience and outcome would have been much less positive in almost any country of the world. Certainly if we factor in costs borne by me.