Fly 77w,
Let me try and be be brief.
I did the SV screening about a year ago. It was done in Cairo.
Whist the written tests, sims and interview were conducted quite professionally, what really really sucked was the way in which the Medical,examination was conducted.
It's conducted in a civilian government hospital where you have absolutely no common language, patients from all over the country crowded before you and in appalling unhygienic and absolutely unsanitary conditions. We were a group of 4 and it took us from 7am until 4pm to simply go thru something that could have been a breeze.
The eye doctor probes into your eyes for anything between 1-2 hours. There is no dis infecting any instruments, then probes again for another 1 hour after putting some drops into your eyes which leave you nearly blinded for the rest of the day!
The toilets are full of bloody cotton swabs and women's sanitary pads lying out in the open or simply in the dustbin. You are expected to give your urine sample in a dingy cubicle with no washing water or even a flush for that matter. And to top it all there is this strange looking dwarf of man with shifty eyes who squeezes himself into the same 3ft/3ft cubicle while you pee...!!! Something to do with drug testing I think.
And I could swear that the lady who did the lung function test for the candidates was not changing the mouth piece where all others were blowing.
When I did my ECG and asked for cleaning up the gel from my body I was simply answered with 'no have'. 20 minutes of negotiations later I had to clean off all of the gook from my body with my own two socks!! Incidentally, my only handkerchief was being used for my eyes which simply didn't stop tearing after the drops and the 2 hours of invasive probing.
The nurse collecting my blood made 3 puncture wounds in my left arm before getting it right.
You are supposed to fast a day before but nobody tells you that. Why? Language issues.
Pathetic comes to mind. But I shall coin a personal adjective and then rewrite this para.
Im not kidding when I say this. But I spent over a month and a half post SV medical simply recovering. I had an infection in both my eyes, got some kind of a skin reaction which later developed into an allergy exactly on the spot where the nurse took the blood from.
The ENT specialist was another circus clown. He keypad saying 'suck it' when what he actually meant to say was 'blow it'. All this whilst probing another unchanged, un disinfected and completely unsanitary ear probe into my ears and then another one into my nostrils later. Believe it made my hair stand on end. And an ENT check that normally should take no more than 5 minutes ended up taking more than 45 minutes.
And then to think that I would be doing this every 6 months!!!!!!
No way.
In fact I got my joining letter just 2 weeks later but I simply didn't reply. At no,point was I going to even consider this job if every 6 months I have to go through this trauma. At best !
No amount of money in the world can compensate you for lost health acquired ironically from a place where health is to be regained!
The building itself is like a slum in São Paulo. It's a standing ruin which should ideally be situated next to the historical pyramids. It might look older.
The only thing that looks older are the instruments and machines they use to probe and check you with.
And then they come back with these weird out of this world results. Three of us including my partner had to re take the blood sample simply because their machine would not give any readout of his their RBC count. They were theoretically bloodless zombies. And again, no syringe change. I refused till he did it.
We had a healthy looking 45'year old pilot with us. As per the physician checking him this pilot's blood pressure was 210/110. Walking dead...!!
On rechecking it was perfectly normal.
Cut a long story short. Your life and Licence is in the hands of these maniacs. And that too every 6 months.
Beware. Be very very aware.
I didn't take the job. Am very happy in another ME carrier where I do a medical every year and if I can bend and tie my shoe lace I'm fit.
BTW I'm a regular jogger and gym met with no known medical problem.
On the bright side this was over a year ago.
Things could have changed. But I wouldn't bet on it.
Off now.