Chinese Hospitals

Since the last post on the hospitals was so dready I thought I would comment a little further. This is mostly since I don't actually have poor thoughts on Chinese hospitals, in fact, I've had reservations and prejudices but good experiences.

For the Chinese, it appears to me, they expect two things when they go to a hospital. They want to see a result and they want to see medicine. For a Finnish person a hospital is not something you visit for a flu but the Chinese think differently.

All of the hospitals I've seen have had large rooms for patients waiting for their IV to drip. This is the most common flu treatment too, you go in, the doctor takes your temperature, listens to your description of the symptoms and prescribes an IV. It's usually a 500ml bag of glucose, another of salt water and some medicine given intravenously. If you suffer from diarrhea or have similar symptoms the treatment is mostly similar, but the doctor is more likely to prescribe the same over three days. The last time my wife went to the hospital it was 3x500ml bags per day for three days plus all the other medicine. This is similar to children, except that they insert the liquid into the forehead instead of the arm and the quantities are smaller.

This kind of treatment is very common here, but the Chinese expect value for their money, even at a doctor. They would feel cheated if the doctor told them to go home, stay warm and call back in two days if the patient didn't feel better.

This seems like a cookie-cutter approach to medicine, but it responds very well to what the customers expect and it's fast enough. The doctors don't need too much time per patient, and to be honest, the patients don't need more - they would likely get better on their own too.

The IV rooms in nicer hospitals have TV:s and I've even seen a room divided in to two areas, one with hard plastic benches and one with beds for those who will pay an extra 10 RMB / visit for the comfort. The hospitals need to make money, but they also have to keep the costs of the visit to a minimum.

The costs of a hospital visit aren't great, but I can imagine they add up to a family. A typical visit will cost 5RMB, which will get you in to the hospital and a brief consultation with a doctor. The prescribed liquids and medicine are then bought from the hospital pharmacy and taken to the treatment room. Depending on the quantity of the medicine one can expect to spend around 50-100 RMB for treatment for flu or food poisoning.

Since I now have experience (by proxy) on surgery I can claim it too is reasonably priced, quick and efficient. The cesarean section is a routine operation anywhere, obviously, but many Chinese mothers opt for the operation instead of the pain of labor. The hospital provided us with a lower uterine segment section (I believe). The whole operation took about 45 minutes from entering the operation room to handing me the baby, and a total of less than 2 hours before the mother was already recovering. Local customs aside, the hospital worked nicely and my wife recovered quickly.

The post-operation treatment included bed rest, IVs and soup. Later more rest, IVs and porridge, followed by IVs, solid food and rest. Five days in the hospital is the typical time it takes to release a patient from a cesarean here, as was the case with my wife. The greatest surprise was the cost of the operation - the work itself, excluding medication and other costs was 1100 RMB. The hospital stay, clothing for the baby, nursing staff, medicine, IVs, diapers and other associated costs added up to less than 5000 RMB, all for a grand total under 6000 RMB. Yes, it's a big amount of money for an average family, but keep in mind this was in the Taizhou Central Hospital and included everything. Giving a normal birth in the hospital would have cost around 1600 RMB, including perhaps one night and two days recovering before release.

No, the hygiene standard isn't as high here as it is in Finland, and no, the rooms aren't as nice and quiet, but the whole system works, and it works fast. All in all a good show from the hospital.

OP Out.