> Health care in Vietnam is not too bad, at least for the price.
Let us see...
My partner got what looked liked food poisoning when we arrived to Hue.
Local hospital refused to take us, sent to a special hospital "for foreigners".
She was put on a bed and kept waiting in pain for hours.
The doctor didn't bother to do anything for her for hours, despite not too many other patients.
We felt hungry, yet they refused to let us go.
After several hours waiting and feeling more stomach pain from hunger, I said, we absolutely have to go and eat something. Yet the doctor told us to keep waiting, refusing to let us go.
I started looking around for food and found a cafeteria on premises that was luckily still open (it was already late).
After a verbal fight with the doctor, he finally allowed us to go to eat in that cafeteria.
It was already late and dark and I had told the doctor, we would be leaving now unless he does something.
After more verbal fights and repeated insistence, the doctor wrote a quick prescription without even checking and sent us to pay about USD 100!
However, by the time he gave it to us, the hospital pharmacy was already closed. And no other pharmacy on the street would have that medicine.
So we came back around midnight, with no medicine, wasted many hours, spent USD 100 on nothing.
Would I call it "not too bad"? Well, if it was any more serious, we would have to fear for our lives is all I can say.
I'm a native VNmese in HCMCity. My wife is a doctor, we also have lots of friends/relatives working as doctors, pharmacists,... so I hope my sharing is not quite irrelevant.
In VN, you can get medical service with the same quality as US, if you know the right place to go. Sometimes you can find doctors with excellent proficiency, since VN is a good evironment for doctors to practice their skill and knowledge (rare cases, severe cases due to bad sanitary & healthcare mindset).
But again, the biggest challenge is that "right place". Not all great doctors work in the biggest hospitals, and not all well-known doctors are great.
I'm sorry to hear that. It seems that we are still not used to deal with foreigners yet, especially outside HN/SG.
> Local hospital refused to take us, sent to a special hospital "for foreigners".
This was the red light, Hue central hospital is actually very good (I have been there myself). It would be better if you had a local to guide you, maybe I should develop a website to help expats in Vietnam... Still what was the name of that hospital 'for foreigner' you mentioned?
Let us see...
My partner got what looked liked food poisoning when we arrived to Hue. Local hospital refused to take us, sent to a special hospital "for foreigners". She was put on a bed and kept waiting in pain for hours. The doctor didn't bother to do anything for her for hours, despite not too many other patients. We felt hungry, yet they refused to let us go. After several hours waiting and feeling more stomach pain from hunger, I said, we absolutely have to go and eat something. Yet the doctor told us to keep waiting, refusing to let us go. I started looking around for food and found a cafeteria on premises that was luckily still open (it was already late). After a verbal fight with the doctor, he finally allowed us to go to eat in that cafeteria. It was already late and dark and I had told the doctor, we would be leaving now unless he does something. After more verbal fights and repeated insistence, the doctor wrote a quick prescription without even checking and sent us to pay about USD 100! However, by the time he gave it to us, the hospital pharmacy was already closed. And no other pharmacy on the street would have that medicine. So we came back around midnight, with no medicine, wasted many hours, spent USD 100 on nothing.
Would I call it "not too bad"? Well, if it was any more serious, we would have to fear for our lives is all I can say.