Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cater for yourself. Meals aren't automatically included in the cost of your stay
at a hospital. You can definitely order meals, but they come at an extra fee.
Hire a carer. Chinese nurses don't always take care of such things as showering
and feeding, but carers can be hired from the hospital to do this. If the sick person
has a serious condition where the carer needs to be particularly careful, you'll need
to check the carer's level of understanding. Most carers have little to no training.
Depending on the situation, carers can be hired by the month (around RMB3,000),
by the day, or by the task.
Get it filled. Often prescriptions are valid only on the day of writing, although
some may last up to three days. And though you may be aching to get out of the hos-
pital by the time it comes to get your prescription filled, it's wise to get it done at the
hospital because the street-level pharmacies don't carry all medications.
Double check. If you're unsure of test results, the prescribed medicines, or even
their dosage, you can always ask for copies and send them to a trusted doctor in your
home country.
Tally up. At the end of your hospital stay, make sure that your bill is item-
ized—the chance that a mysterious charge has slipped its way into the total is big
enough to warrant checking.
The Culture
Don't expect to be treated with any form of sympathy when you go to a Chinese hospital.
The doctors here have seen thousands before you, and most likely many in worse condition
than you. If your doctor does waver toward a moment of tenderness, it'll quickly be extin-
guished by the recall of the endless crowd of people waiting outside ready to stampede in
as soon as you're done.
If you're a tad on the prudish side, get over it. Privacy doesn't exist in this customer-ser-
vice vacuum. There is next to no privacy in a local hospital and you can forget any sense
of personal space. If you're taken off for an X-ray or test, it's quite likely that the husband
of the woman in the bed next to you will be chilling out on your bed when you return. In
the rush to get through the day's ocean of patients, doctors also often sit side by side in
the same room, with patients lining up next to each other waiting their turn. Your diagnos-
is of irritable bowel syndrome will be of intense interest to the family and relatives at the
neighboring table, who are wondering what kind of illness might be plaguing this wide-
eyed wàiguórén (foreigner).
Search WWH ::




Custom Search