7: Hospital

First off, I want to apologize for a delay in posting. I’ve been extremely busy with trying to get myself situated here in Beijing, seeing the sights, and doing all my work. That said, I now have a story today, and I will post another one tomorrow about my experience with participating in a massive art project!

This story was actually my first horrible cultural experience here. The experience itself wasn’t bad, but the cultural differences struck me badly. Anyway, I hurt my ankle pretty badly last Wednesday, and in such a stupid way too. I was joking around with my friends and was trying to balance on a ledge. Then I fell off, and twisted my ankle. It got pretty bad, and I didn’t have time to go to the hospital until Friday. Come Friday morning, and off I hobbled to the Peking University hospital down the street (when I say down the street, I mean a 30-minute walk down the street. That’s how things go in Beijing). When I got there, the first thing I had to do was get a registration card, and then go up to the front desk to put money on it.

So I put down my Chinese name, and walked over to the front desk. Now, before I continue, I have to explain one thing. The Chinese cannot, or absolutely refuse to line up anywhere. If God himself came down to China, and told the Chinese people to line up and he would lead them into heaven, they would just crowd around him, holding up 100 yuan bills, clamoring to be let in. So into the hordes I went. Luckily, I managed to shove past some people and get up front to pay. This was pretty upsetting for me, especially because I couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if I were sick, or elderly. And it really was that rough, people were shoving each other and elbowing each other.

Once I put some money on my card, I had to find the doctor’s office, which wasn’t that hard. When I got to his office, I realized that a trip to the hospital in China is VASTLY different from the US. Basically, there are two desks for two separate doctors, and everyone (about 6 or 7 of us) basically just crowds around the desks, waiting for the patient talking with the doctor to leave so they can sit down and have their time with the doctor. There’s absolutely no privacy. Once I sat down, the doctor gave me a form to go get my ankle x-rayed. I went down to the basement to see the x-ray technician there. He led me into the room, where I laid down on the big bed next to the machine. Usually, they put a lead vest on you to prevent you from the radiation. Here, I didn’t see any of that, and the technician just took some x-rays. Then he gave me the print outs and I had to bring it back to the doctor. Fortunately, he deemed my ankle not broken, but just sprained and bruised, and prescribed me some Chinese medicine.

To pick up my medicine, I just went to the pharmacy in the lobby, grabbed a number from the machine and waited for it to be called (it was all in Chinese, so that was a bit scary). I got my medicines and I went to class.

I was extremely overwhelmed by the lack of privacy. I wasn’t expecting it from a hospital. Despite that, the visit took about 40 minutes, which is pretty quick by American standards, and REALLY fast by European standards. Also, the entire thing (doctor visit, x-ray, and medicines) was about 200 yuan, or 40 dollars. I know that insurance covers hospital visits in America, and that people usually pay only 10 or 20 dollars, but for an entire visit package, 40 bucks is cheap. However, the lax standards they have really threw me off. I can’t help but wonder what a western doctor in Beijing would be like.