A Chinese Hospital

So I woke up one morning and my eye was a little yucky, felt a little itchy and with two kids you never know, i figured i had better get it looked at.  Since this was something simple I felt there was no need to travel all the way to Shanghai to see the doctor but to try my hand at seeing a local doctor in Changzhou.  I had to be escorted by an interpreter from Brian's work because no one speak English in the hospitals, at least enough for me to talk to them.  So Brian came home to watch Grace and off I went to the Chinese hospital.

For local Chinese the only option is to go to the hospital for any illness, they don't have private doctors offices like at home. You just show up at the hospital, wait in line to get on the doctors list for the department you need, there is a small fee for this, about $3, then you go to the department floor and wait to see the doctor.  I was seeing an ophthalmologist,  there were two doctors working that day, when i arrived I was seated in a hallway to wait, there was a digital board that showed your name in order and which doctor you would see.  Mine was of course the only English name, funny thing is Brian once took Blake to this hospital to have his ears checked when he was complaining of it hurting but no other symptoms, so we had a hospital card with his name set up.  They let me use the card to check in and be seen so my name was Blake Hudson, age 3.

Once I was called in to see the doctor, I entered a room with two doctors desks set up next to each other, an eye testing machine on each and the other doctor was seeing a patient while i was being seen as well.  They looked into my eye through the eye testing machine, said it looked like conjunctivitis and I could pick up my prescription at the pharmacy.  Off I went to pay for being seen, pay for the prescription and then pick up my eye drops all in the same building.....a giant hospital.

As I waited in line to pay I was there in one of 5 or so lines with at least 10 other people paying my bill.  The cost to be seen was about $5 and my prescriptions, 2 different eye drops another $3.  I then went to the pharmacy where i looked at the board to see which line my names was listed for and waited to receive my medicines.  Everything was very systematic and done well.  The hospital was clean and well maintained, it was odd to me though that while i was being seen for my eye, someone was giving birth in another section, someone was getting their sick child medicine, and even someone else might be getting their vaccines.  It is an interesting concept to have a one stop shop for healthcare, no appointments to be made, just go when you have time.  While i will probably continue to go to Shanghai for most medical care, although for something small this was pretty convenient and they didn't care I was a foreigner, they saw me, treated me and gave me the same price and citizens.