Visit to Huashan Hospital Worldwide Medical Center VIP facility during off hours

I have an injured ankle - as you've probably gathered by now. It was getting worse even after a tender rub by Mr B and so we decided to head to the hospital to get it looked at even though it was 8pm at night. Unlike in Singapore, there are no 24 hour clinics or even GP clinics that treats common ailments here and so it had to be a hospital.

I normally head to United Family Hospital nearby for our health care needs. This time we decided (or rather Mr B persuaded me) to give Huashan Hospital a try, since I did mention to him that its part of my company's in-network offering. We rang ahead and were told that since its a Saturday, any visit will be considered to be an ER case. This is in line with our knowledge of both Parkway and United. United, being an out of network hospital for my company's insurance policy, will only allow me to have an "up to 80%" claim on the charges. Under Mr B's persuasion and knowing that we should be prudent with our expenses, I reluctantly agreed to give Huashan a go.

It was a 15 to 20 minute ride to Huashan and its funny how every bump the car took was being magnified in my ankle. I was beginning to regret not heading directly to United. We were directed to park at a spot that was another 5 minute hobble to the lift and to top it off, the regular lift was shut, and we had to proceed to the "night" lift. The smell to the lift was really horrid, a mixture of urine and dirt and there was an industrial size bin parked strategically next to the lift's entrance. Very welcoming.

I reminded myself to remain unbiased. After reaching the Worldwide Medical Center on the 8th floor, i.e. the VIP section, we were told to sit down and wait for the doc to arrive. It was at least a 20 minute wait and I was muttering to Mr B that we would have had severe complications by now if it was a true ER case. Plus the medical center was totally empty. Apparently the doctor was on his way over from somewhere else in the hospital, rather weird given that we had rung ahead and informed them that we were on our way.

When the doctor did finally arrive, he sat down, flipped my charts and asked me how I felt. He then asked to see the ankle and I waited for him to bend down and pull my socks off. He didn't. Instead I had to bend down and peel my socks off and even then, he still didn't bring himself nearer to the ankle.

"Looks swollen" he pronounced. You'd think!!!

He then said that I should go for an xray before he will say anymore. The nurses called for a porter and with the script for an xray in hand, I was wheeled away. Only when the porter hit the "1 floor" button did alarm bells go off my head. Why are we heading to the first floor? The nurses had told us "3 楼" when we had rung to check before, since I had an inkling of the way Chinese hospitals work. I was NOT happy.

Note: typically, in the local hospitals, every service that is required e.g. blood work, xray, cross consultation with another doctor - requires one to go over to that department to get done and payment will have to be made before one is able to get a queue number (挂号) and the patient will have to hang around to get the report/diagnosis before returning back to the original doctor who had sent the patient on the witch hunt, sorry, rounds before. As you can imagine, this could take a really, really long time since one basically queues up all over again with each service.

The porter then parked me at the entrance of the glass doors, muttered something about needing to get a "stamp" for the xray order and ran off. Sentiments of irritation coursed through my blood and I told Ben I had half a mind to just walk off. How could this porter just leave me in the middle of no where? And why did we have to go out in the cold to another building to get an xray? How crazy is that....it was only 3 degrees outside.

The porter returned a long 5 minutes later, with a few chinese people walking in a huddle behind him. He then pushed the wheelchair really quickly, as if he was in an F1 race. I told him off for going so fast and he replied "there's another person in that group behind us who needs an xray and I wanted you to go before them". Its ok, I snapped back, I rather reach there in one piece then to fall from the wheel chair. "Wouldn't fall" he chuckled as it this was not even remotely possible. I was not assured nor amused.

Despite my protest on the F1 wheelchair speed, we still made it to the xray department before the other group. I was then parked in the corridor while the porter ran off into one of the rooms to report our presence. The porter returned a few minutes later and pushed me into one of the xray rooms. It contained a rail of curtains in a corner, a desk with a computer and a battered xray table. At this point, even Mr B was a little concerned since he saw the room and equipment to be somewhat old and dirty.

I was protesting to Mr B in english that its so smelly and dirty when the porter whipped out a piece of disposable paper about 2m X0.8m and laid it over the tired xray platform. He then told me to get off the chair and lie on it. Yeah right...lie. Mr B felt really sorry at this point and helped me onto the table. I had just settled into a sitting position when the porter plonked a lead hat on my head. Like the one in the picture, except that its bright blue. At this point, Mr B and I couldn't help ourselves but burst out laughing since it looked really silly. We both remarked that its a pity we hadn't think of bringing our camera with us since I looked so silly.

The technician came over, adjusted my foot, shooed the rest of the onlookers out of the room (by this time, the other lady needing an xray and her entourage were in the room having a good nose around) and did his thing. The porter and Mr B then rushed in after the technician was done and I was helped back onto the wheelchair and parked yet again in the waiting room to wait for the xray report. It would have been fine if the lights to the room were turned on and had it not smelt. I had to beg Mr B to push me back to the walkway as it at least had some light.

After a 10 minute wait, Mr Porter handed Mr B my films and proceeded to push me back out to the cold and back to the building where we had our consultation. This is where it gets really bizarre. Picture this: Doctor comes in, places the film on the light panel and studies it. Mr B remarks out loud that my bones are so big, and look weird, everything looks fine, doesn't seem to have any fracture and declares that it must be a bad ligament thing. All this while, Doctor keeps quiet and studies the film. After a long 5 minutes, he turns to face us and says "Yes, everything you'd described, a ligament injury. So how?" (该么办呀?").

Mr B and I kept quiet cos we were both wondering why he would ask this of us. Maybe he was just thinking aloud? No. He was actually waiting for an answer from us! "Well...Mr B says, can you do something about it?" Doctor says that this kind of this is best to not move it and just lay and rest. "How long does it take?" I ask. "Not too long and not too short" Doctor responds. Mr B and I turned to look at each other and we both raised our eyebrows. Did he answer the question or not?

He then said he doesn't think I need a cast as long as I promise to not move my foot. I then asked in that case, how many days does it take for me to be able to get back to work. "2 weeks" he declared. "WHAT?" I shouted " That's so long". Mr B and I then negotiated that the sick leave be shortened to one week. Like I mentioned before, bizarre situation.

We left the place about 1.5 hours after we arrived, RMB700+ lighter and somewhat enlightened about the care that can be had at such a facility, even at its VIP cum ER combo.

Mr B felt so bad for me that he insisted on driving me out for an ice cream treat. I kept telling him that I'll drag him here to experience service first hand when he next needs an ER visit. To think his last ER visit was at the comfortable United where the nurses actually did show some level of care and the doctor did not give incomprehensible answers, though I guess it was the pricing that made the difference -- RMB4,000 visit and a RMB700 one.

Having said, I would still go back to for any non-invasive care but only if cost was really a factor. I would also lower my expectations and be prepared for a long wait.

Huashan Hospital, Worldwide Medical Center, Huashan Lu & ChangLe Lu, Building 1, 8 Floor. Tel: 6248-9999 (ask for Wai(4) Bin(1) 外宾)