Taiwan Health

The medical system here in Taiwan is definitely something to behold. There are so many hidden layers and elements to it, that I'm not sure how much of it I've actually tapped or understood.

From what I can gather, there are three places to go see a doctor: hospitals, private clinics, and public health clinics. Stemming from these three major branches are many tiny little branches, and therein lies the tricky bit - which tiny branch do you/should you go to?

In Canada, if I want to see a doctor, I go to my family doctor at a doctor's office. The difficult part there is getting a doctor to see you. Basically, the doctor picks you because there are so few of them that want new patients.

In Taiwan, I can see pretty much any doctor I want - except here, I have to pick a selection of doctors. For example, suppose you have a pain in your side. Now, you'll have to analyze the pain. Is it on the surface or internal? If it's on the surface, then you'd go see the "Wai Ke" doctor - basically meaning the "outside" doctor. If it's internal, then things get more difficult. Now you'll have to decide if the pain is stemming from which of your multitude of internal organs - spleen? colon? stomach? uterus? liver? I couldn't even name all the parts before I came to Taiwan, but I can almost tell you all of them in Chinese now!

So now that you've decided on which doctor, or rather, department, to go to, you'll now have to decide whether to go to a hospital or a clinic. If you choose the hospital (and I'm not sure why people choose this option), then you have to go through a labyrinth - from the registration to the doctor  to the lab for tests then back to the doctor for immediate results then back to registration to pay then to the pharmacy before you finally leave. The good part? Everything is immediate and quick. That means you generally get to see the doctor quickly, you get your results quickly and your prescription is filled before you even get to the pharmacy. The bad part? Everything is quick. That means the doctor will see you for all of 3 minutes, with random nurses running in and out of the doctor's office and also random patients running in and out of the office.

The private clinics seem to be a better deal, but maybe the reason people go to the hospital is that if you end up at the wrong department, well then you just go to another one. The clinics, however, seem to be all specialized. In Dashe, I have seen offices for ENT, dermatology and pediatrics. I'm sure there are other ones, but I haven't looked that hard because I find it all too confusing.

However, today, I went to a clinic all the way downtown to get a checkup. Turns out this was a FAMILY DOCTOR!!! Wow!!! This was the first one I've ever found! I went in just for a quick check of something, but he proceeded to do an almost full check up, and asked me about my family history. This was so unlike Taiwan, but now I'm going to be willing to drive that far so I can get a real check up!

What prodded me to write this was what actually happened at the public clinic yesterday.

We've been debating about whether to give Kaeden the H1N1 vaccine. After hemming and hawing for a while, and finding out that the vaccine for 6 months to 1 year started on November 9, we finally decided on it. So we called the Dashe Health Clinic, because for kids that age, you can ONLY get the vaccine there. For kids older than a year, the pediatrician we normally see can give them the vaccine. So on November 16, I called the clinic only to find out that I would have to wait 3 to 4 weeks in order for them to just call me back with a date of when Kaeden could get the vaccine. Funny thing was that friends were getting their older kids immunized before us because they could get it at the pediatrician.

So, I forgot about it.

Fast forward to Thursday, November 19. It's 10am and I'm about to leave the house to go downtown to meet friends. The phone rings, and someone on the other side tells me that I need to bring Kaeden to the clinic RIGHT AWAY in order for him to get the vaccine. I ask her if I could bring him tomorrow. She says no. I ask her when is the latest time I can bring him. She says that they can't wait for us, and asks me how many minutes (MINUTES!) it's going to take me to get there. I tell her Kaeden's taking a nap. She tells me to wake him up and get over there NOW. Basically, she tells me over and over that if I didn't come right there and then, that he MAY NEVER GET THE VACCINE.

I won't go into any more details, except that the public clinic is like the maze at the hospital.

So the conclusion or moral of this story?

Before you come to Taiwan, learn some anatomy. Then you can self-diagnose as much as possible, and choose the right private clinic to go to. Or don't, and have some incredibly great memories and stories to tell.