‘I compare the Irish health service with Spain and I don’t know why Spanish people complain’

Moving from the Mediterranean climate to the incessant rain of Ireland was a shock for Dr Yayicsia Escalona. She particularly noticed it when she took a trip to Co Kerry in 2020. “I had a bad experience, because it rained everyday. It was very bad. I was wondering where the dolphin was. I didn’t get to see the dolphin,” she says of Fungie, the Dingle dolphin that attracted tourists until his unexplained disappearance. “Hopefully I will go back next summer.”

Originally from Ciudad Guayana, in Venezuela, Escalona moved to Ireland in 2017 after 12 years in Alicante, in Spain. She spent seven years studying medicine in her home country, after which she was required to work in rural medicine. “I worked in rural medicine for one year, and when I finished that I started intensive care. When I finished this experience I moved to Spain,” she says.

The decision to leave Venezuela was a tough one. It is a beautiful country, she says, but where she was became very unsafe. “The reason I moved at that time was because my family was robbed several times. They robbed the car, robbed the house,” she says. “My parents were very sad. My plan was to finish my degree and to stay and work in Venezuela, but the situation was very, very bad. But Venezuela is a beautiful country. Now it’s much better compared to 15 years ago.”

They would say to me, this accent is from Cork, this accent is from Donegal, this accent is from Galway

She landed in Spain in 2005 and completed her postgraduate education in Alicante. She loved it there but grew frustrated as she was not able to communicate with her patients in the way she would have liked. “I had a lot of patients from Ireland, Germany, from the UK, and when my patients came in I couldn’t speak English. In 2016 I spoke with my husband and decided it was time I needed to learn English. I don’t know which country, but we were moving to America or another country like the UK or Ireland to learn to speak English.”

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Soon afterwards she went to a healthcare conference that had Irish flags around the venue. She spoke to a recruiter there who told her about Ireland. Escalona decided that was where she would move. “I sent all the papers, and I received several offers from different health centres, hospitals, private [facilities]. I decided to move. I started the process in 2016, and after only three months I had all the papers done. I moved in January 2017. It was very fast.”

Moving to Ireland was difficult, she says, but made easier by the support of colleagues. She worked in hospices for the first two years of her life in Ireland, and her colleagues helped her understand the various accents. “They explained to me the accent. They would say to me, this accent is from Cork, this accent is from Donegal, this accent is from Galway,” she says.

Now that she has settled, she says she really enjoys her life in Ireland. Her husband is a tennis coach, and her three children have settled into the community. She loves Ireland, describing the people as “very friendly”. But she acknowledges she may need to return to Spain in the future so her 10-year-old son, Leo, can do high-performance tennis training. “My heart is half Spain and half Ireland. Really it depends on my child.”

But Escalona has made a life for herself here. In June 2018, she opened up her own medical practice: E&S Doctors in Dublin. “The principal idea of this medical centre was because a lot of people have a foreign language. It’s very difficult to meet with any doctor if they’re speaking English. It’s hard to say ‘I have a pain, or an ache’ if you can’t speak English too,” she says.

Her patients are mostly Hispanic people, with the number of people attending the centre growing every month. “I now have around 8,000 patients here. I have Irish patients, American patients, Italian patients. A lot of different countries. Different patients from mostly foreign countries. A lot of students. A lot of patients from Trinity College.”

I love my job. I love helping people, I love serving the people

The health system in Ireland is in crisis she says. “Some patients wait 18 hours in the emergency department. Some days I compare this system here with Spain and I don’t know why people in Spain complain about the service there. The people in Spain don’t know. They don’t have to wait,” she says.

Despite this situation, she loves her job. Escalona says she has always wanted to be a doctor, even as a small child. “My older sister always said that every year I would ask for the Fisher Price doctor’s bag. It was the only toy I wanted,” she says. “My mam is a nurse, and I always went to the hospital when she worked and I saw all the doctors, the nurses, the medicine, everything. Maybe it’s from that.”

She adds that she is grateful she is able to work in this profession in Ireland, as Irish people have a “lot of respect for doctors”. She also likes that she can assist those who, perhaps, would not have been able to find a doctor who understands them. This makes it all the more special, she adds.

“My principal purpose of my job is to deliver health to the people. I love my job. I love helping people, I love serving the people. The patients here are trying to get medication or treatment for their condition from another country,” she says. “I have patients with cancer from other countries, I have patients with epilepsy or diabetes, and they need follow-up here. Some patients bring all of the paper in Spanish. Some people understand, some patients don’t understand.”

We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland in the past 10 years. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish