Tell expat friends that you use local, rather than expat-orientated hospitals in Shanghai, and you\u2019ll raise a few eyebrows. Actually use local healthcare, and you\u2019ll risk more than public embarrassment, you\u2019ll risk your health too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least, that\u2019s a popular opinion, but is it true? I recently got attacked by a case of conjunctivitis so severe it forced me into almost every kind of clinic the city offers. Here\u2019s what I found out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local:<\/strong> If you speak Chinese, or are with someone who does, the process is quite simple. Pick up a patient record book from one counter, pay 16 RMB at another, and head off to the relevant department. No appointment necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Myself and my blazing red eye were sent to the ophthalmology department. An unsmiling woman in a hairnet ignored me for thirty seconds before sending me to sit on the edge of a bench; every few minutes, we shuffled up the bench, one seat closer to the doctor\u2019s room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Conjunctivitis,\u2019 said the doctor, after a brusque examination. \u2018I\u2019ll give you two drops and an eye cream. Be careful not to give the infection to other people. Come back in a week if it\u2019s not better.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n I left quickly, and the next patient shuffled off the bench into the doctor\u2019s room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n International:<\/strong> When my single red eye had become two red eyes, and walking out into sunlight a shock so severe I had to hold onto a door for twenty seconds before the darkness abated, I made an appointment with an eye specialist at a well-known clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I left his office knowing more about the eye (and what had happened to mine) than when I went in. He handed me his card as I left. \u2018Let me know if you have any questions, you can send me a short message.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Local:<\/strong> To make matters more unintelligible, the doctor was an older Shanghainese man with thickly accented Mandarin. \u2018You didn\u2019t bring anyone to interpret,\u2019 he admonished me. It might have been a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n International:<\/strong> Local:<\/strong> The presence of security guards didn\u2019t stop me seeing an altercation between two sets of patients waiting to pick up their medicine at the Renji Hospital. It was a loud dispute, with plenty of finger pointing and zero violence. One of the security guards ambled over to watch, but despite all the posturing, nothing happened in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese medical personnel protest against patient-doctor violence<\/p>\n\n\n\n International:<\/strong> \u2018I will sue you, and your doctor,\u2019 he said, stabbing the air with his finger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was hard to work out why he was so angry, but it had something to do with the treatment of his baby; hospitals are places where emotions run high, and where every day is a battle for life and death, so it\u2019s no surprise that disputes sometimes escalate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I visited the Renji Hospital in Huangpu district on a Monday lunchtime. The hospital was about as busy as line 2 on the subway at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve been to an international clinic in Shanghai, you\u2019ll know to expect a clean waiting room with one or two other patients at most. The receptionist will welcome you in English and you\u2019ll be escorted to a courteous doctor within minutes. You\u2019ll need to make an appointment, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTreatment in translation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Not much English was spoken during my appointment at Renji Hospital (the doctor said \u2018look down,\u2019 and \u2018look up\u2019 while examining my eyes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not just the lifting of the language barrier that makes interactions at expat clinics easier. Without a benchful of anxious patients sniffling outside, doctors are less stressed and have more time ( which is why I got to learn about the various kinds of conjunctivitis, over a relaxed twenty minute period). No matter how good your Chinese is, if you need information, and not just a quick prescription, you need a clinic where the doctors have time to talk to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDiagnosed and disorderly<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve read the many news stories about patients attacking doctors you won\u2019t be surprised to see the security guards that stand on watch at local hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At an international clinic, I watched a man who might have been overseas Chinese switch between English and Mandarin as he threatened the staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOverall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n