A Chinese Hospital

Yesterday, Elvia and I took the school van down to Chongqing to visit the Foreigners’ Hospital for my physical examination. While I already went through this whole procedure in the U.S., I had been warned by CIEE that I would probably have to do it again because often parts of it are not recognized by the Chinese government.

If I have anything to say about the Chinese system, it is certainly efficient. I had an ECG, an ultrasound (this was a new one), a blood test, an eye and ear exam, a chest x-ray, and a physical exam, all administered in under an hour. This hospital felt more like an assembly line than a patient care facility. I was herded into rooms with three or four other people, and often asked to take off my shirt in front of them. The blood test was performed at a window with a line ten or fifteen people deep, as if you were queuing up to buy concert tickets rather than have a needle stuck in you. This would not be a good place for the shy or modest, and there certainly was no such thing as patient-physician confidentiality.

Elvia, having forced uncomfortable foreigners through this process many a time, told me that because of this efficient and impersonal approach to medicine, China was abusing the use of antibiotics because they could easily be prescribed for anything and often bought over the counter. She also told me about a new phenomena where sick young people who do not have the time to stay at home, drink fluids, and rest, will instead come in to the hospital and for 200 kuai ($33) get an IV inserted in their arms to recover their fluids. Elvia thinks this practice is a scam, but apparently most Chinese young people swear by it if they can afford it. While this practice seems pretty crazy to me, with almost 2 billion people to care for how could the medical system not become a little impersonal?

My class was cancelled Thursday because of my hospital trip and all classes are cancelled Monday because it is a public holiday. So I’m heading into Chongqing this weekend to meet up with some other Americans and hopefully get some pizza!