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The quality of the doctors in China varies greatly. Even in the best
hospital of Shenzhen (Peking University hospital) the quality does not
always seem as good. One example: I went to the hospital and when you
register for a consult, you need to say if you want to see an expert
doctor or just anyone. We picked an expert (it was only 8RMB in total
anyway!). After waiting for a while in the waiting room, the doctor
could see us. Downstairs we had read her resume, and it looked
impressive. But what a shock!
She was not only totally clueless, she was even agressive and
patronizing. Of course I won't go into the details, but suffice to say
that I know what I was coming for and this doctor just made totally the
wrong judgements. She just plainly refused to examine me! I've really
never encountered anything like this before. Such a person is totally
unsuitable to be a doctor. We were both totally shocked at the level of
incompetence and the rudeness. Luckily my girlfriend convinced her to
give our ticket back and we went to the second expert on duty. This guy
was totally the opposite: he seemed to know what he was doing and took
the time for me and listened to us. The first female doctor already had
her diagnosis before we were in: I don't speak English. Sigh
Morale of the story: be very careful which doctor you get and don't
trust on reputation. Some doctors are just utter garbage and should
immediately be removed from their position because of the risks they
pose to patients who are unaware of their complete and utter lack of
skills. I'm considering writing a letter to the hospital, but this will
probably be useless. You don't become the 'expert' of a department
without being connected...
The upside: healthcare (if you are lucky enough to get a good doctor)
is REALLY cheap in China. All consults I saw were less than 10Y and
small surgeries are less than 1000Y in total.
So if this experience did not scare you away from Chinese hospitals, here is the survival guide:
- Bring someone who speaks Chinese and knows the Chinese translations of all the medical terms you want to ask about
- Hospitals generally work from 8:30 - 12 and from 14:15 to 17:3o or so. Make sure you come early in the morning to register. If you arrive for example at 11:30, it's likely that the morning quota has been reached (many people waiting still) and you can only start to register again around 12h and then need to wait till 14h. It's also best to avoid weekends, as everyone goes to the hospital then.
- You need to register in the hospital and you will get a green book where the doctor will write your history. I'm not actually sure there is a digital record as well. All registration forms are in Chinese. All doctors speak Chinese.
- Consulting a doctor is really cheap : 3-8Yuan. They make money by treating as many patients as possible.
- Don't expect too much privacy. If you are lucky, you can close the door yourself when you have your consult with the doctor. Often one consulting room is shared between several doctors, so everyone can hear what you are talking about.
- You can more-or-less pick anything you like to do. If you want them to cut you open, that's NO problem - as long as you pay of course. First pay, then they will do anything for you.
- If you don't have some common problem, be very very suspicious of the diagnosis and perhaps just try to get a second opinion: you might as well just register for two consults immediately. The price is not the problem :)
Chinese hospitals are really the opposite from Dutch hospitals:
- No need to make an appointment for a consult several days or weeks in advance
- It's very cheap
- It's very busy
- Quality varies a lot
- It somehow seems to handle massive amounts of people
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 13 June 2009 )
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