Does China really offer better medical care than the West?

By Wang Han Source:Global Times Published: 2015-12-29 19:23:01

"It may kill me if I go on suffering in Australia for another night," Li Bingbing, a famous Chinese actress, wrote on her Weibo recently. According to Li, she suffered a 39.7 Celsius fever for more than half a month during the filming of a new movie in Australia, but local hospitals there failed to diagnose her illness or offer her any treatment.

Feeling frightened, the 42-year-old superstar flew back to China, where she was hospitalized at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing. Chinese doctors confirmed that Li had acute purulent tonsillitis, saying that the inflammation was so severe that delays could have endangered her life.

Medical service is a sensitive issue in China, and the shoddy treatment this Hundred Flowers Award-winning celebrity received in Australia triggered online debates over the differences between Chinese and Western healthcare. While some claim China's medical resources still lag behind developed countries, many Chinese who have studied or lived abroad shared similar tales of frustration at the hands of Western doctors and nurses.

Shanghai boasts the most advanced healthcare facilities in Chinese mainland yet many residents still have plenty of reasons to complain. According to a 2014 report by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 39 percent of Shanghai citizens surveyed were unhappy about the long lines, often up to six hours, at local hospitals, and 19 percent complained about being instructed to take unnecessary physical examinations. High costs of treatment, the surly attitudes of Chinese doctors and being over-prescribed medicine were also frequent complaints.

To meet the needs of wealthy Shanghainese patients as well as the city's population of expats, foreign-run private hospitals have in recent years enhanced their presence in the metropolis. There are over 50 international healthcare facilities in Shanghai, most with a multilingual staff of doctors and specialists. As a majority of foreign families in Shanghai prefer to patronize these private clinics instead of queuing up at a public hospital, the fees can often be outrageous.

Though I myself have yet to visit any of Shanghai's foreign clinics, my past experiences in Edinburgh gave me some insight into Western healthcare. My first month in Edinburgh I contracted a painful eye infection. The British doctor's "remedy" was just to put a hot cloth over my eye. One week later my eye still had not gotten any better, so I made an overseas call to a family friend in China who is an eye doctor. She suggested my eye might have a bacterial infection and could require minor surgery. As the British doctor was still unwilling to treat me, my sty existed for nearly two excruciating months until I was able to return to China for surgery.

My Chinese classmate in Edinburgh, Chrystal, had a similar experience. At one point she came down with a bad cold and fever, but British doctors only "prescribed" her hot water and rest. Her cold got worse, ravaging her immune system and resulting in an unending fever and the same tonsillitis that Li Bingbing suffered. Only when Chrystal became bedridden did the doctors prescribe her antipyretics.

Our American roommate Abby tried to explain to us why Western doctors seem to be so unconcerned. "Doctors in our countries are cautious of prescribing medicine, especially for minor illnesses, because they believe our immune system can resist small diseases."

Indeed, medical journals are reporting that scientists in the UK recently discovered an antibiotic-resistant gene, MCR-1, in numerous Asian and European countries. Called the "superbug," the gene is directly linked to worldwide misuse of antibiotics in agriculture.

Earlier this month, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that gonorrhea - the second most common sexually transmitted disease in Australia at 67 percent - may become "untreatable" due to antibiotic-resistance. In the US, a 2013 study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that one-third of American-strain gonorrhea cases were resistant to antibiotics.

Abby added that because many Western nations offer free medical services paid for by taxes, hasty prescriptions are regarded as a "waste of social resources." This is very different than in China, where all medical services must be paid upfront by the patient before being seen by a doctor. Even in life-threatening emergencies, patients must provide proof of an ability to pay before a doctor or nurse will receive them.

But once you get through the front door here, Chinese doctors will heap a dozen different prescriptions on you, as they receive bonuses based on how much revenue they generate for the hospital. It should come as no surprise, then, that the MCR-1 superbug started in China.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.

Posted in: TwoCents, Metro Shanghai, Pulse

blog comments powered by Disqus