HK Health Care

Bad posture and one too many peanut butter sandwiches was my self-diagnosis a couple of weeks ago when I'd felt especially sluggish and tired after running.  I further justified my worsening performance to a lousy outdoor run to heat, humidity, and pollution. Seemed completely reasonable to me! One morning, however, I had more acute pain in my abdomen, so I pressed on it.  I discovered a large, hard lump.

As you might imagine, it was alarming.  I called my general practitioner and got in within an hour.  She referred me onto a specialist/surgeon who I saw just a couple of hours later.  The diagnosis: two very large ovarian cysts (9cm & 7 cm!). Surgery was scheduled for four days later - I was stunned, not only at the diagnosis but the speed in which things were made to happen.

Hong Kong has two health care systems - one public, one private.  Public health care is free or nearly free to patients (of course, it's paid for by taxes, so it's not actually free) and overall the quality of care is considered good.  However, people who use the public health care are subject to long waits, limited availability of specialists, and a lower staff-to-patient ratio in clinics and hospitals.  While expatriates can use the public health care, one would need to have a firm understanding of Cantonese (or have the faith that it will all somehow work out!).

The private health care here is much like any other service - you pick your provider(s) and you pay for it at the time of service.  All of it.  Out of pocket.  They don't mess with insurance; if you want reimbursed, you have to handle it with your own insurance company.  Does this make private health care a profit-driven, money making machine?  I'm not really sure, but it doesn't seem that way.

My doctor doesn't have the pressure of quantity of visits (because of insurance discounts) over the quality of the visit.  She actually knows me - and can name my family members and hobbies without ever opening the chart (in a sealed envelope, so I know she hasn't studied it before).  She called me at home the night before surgery just to check in.  I email her routinely with questions - no charge.  The surgeon, who has an incredibly busy practice, made me feel like he had all the time in the world for me.  He greets his clients in the full waiting room himself - and is generally rewarded with hugs from the patients. 

It's not to say that the private system is perfect.  The doctors and nurses in it are human and errors can happen  Plus, having to pay for a major surgery out of pocket took a bit of financial gymnastics to get money transferred to the right place in the right currency at the right time.  Some people would argue that this system is unfair - if you can't pull the money together, you're out of the private system.  However, that's not a debate that's beyond the scope of this blog!  What I will say is that I'm extraordinarily grateful to have been able to use the private health care in Hong Kong. 

As for me, the surgery went well and there were no major complications.  The best news was that the cysts were benign and my only task after surgery is to recover from it.  The biggest disappointment, as I mentioned in my previous blog post, was that we couldn't make our trip to Bali - a small price to pay for having good health!  Hopefully, we'll not have additional experience with HK health care...but we have made sure to buy trip insurance for the remainder of our travels just in case!  :)