The other problem is they give you a cocktail of so many different medications that it’s impossible to know which one is the active ingredient. This also increases the risk of side effects, and they’d be no way of telling which drug was causing it.
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These days you are more likely to be turned away and refused treatment. Has happened to me regularly in the last 4 or 5 years. I had one excellent specialist but he recently succumbed to cancer at age 80. I even had one specialist say straight to my face that she wouldn’t treat me because I am a foreigner. At that point I walked out and told her I’d be sending a letter to the government.
Never heard of anybody being refused treatment. Call BS on this.
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Lol what kind of back-alley clinic did you go to where you met this super racist doctor? Pretty sure it’s illegal to turn away patients here. I don’t know if you live in a really small rural town or whatever (as I can’t imagine this happening in Taipei), but there must be a GP at a reputable hospital that’ll see you. I won’t go as far as calling BS on you, but I will say this is an easily avoidable situation if you do a little online research and make sure you’re seeing a good Dr.
NTU hospital. Was referred to her by another specialist from another hospital. I have long term health issues and deterioration. They just want to give me pain meds rather than find out what’s happening. I also suffer from regular bouts of rheumatic fever. So it’s complicated. Plus I read lots of things about neuroplasticity and treatment which seems to go over a lot of Taiwanese doctors heads.
I second BS
Yeah it’s not as simple as going to the doctor for a sniffle. Or being seen in emergency for coming off a scooter.
Well, many doctors at NTU do suffer from God like complex because they are instructors and you know how teachers get here: tehy send their assistants to do the work but heaven forbid anyone questions their judgement. NTU is overcrowded and does not give you the best attention. Go to other hospitals. Maybe he was trying to get you to their foreign only medical tourism ward.
We had a couple of bad racist experiences as students, mostly because we are not whities but brown skinned Latinos. One guy who was coughing his lungs up was told by the doctor -who refued to touch him or check him at all - that he had AIDS. But the problem was solved when a different doctor was chosen, and we found the X ray specialist spoke Spanish.
Well I did, they couldn’t give him the treatment Taiwanese get they said, and he’s on an APRC.
Well that would seem to be illegal.
Well, many doctors at NTU do suffer from God like complex because they are instructors and you know how teachers get here: tehy send their assistants to do the work but heaven forbid anyone questions their judgement.> Blockquote
This one specifically asked where the original injury occurred and when I told them that country she said “sorry, but you will have to get treatment there.”
As if thousands of Taiwanese did not travel to Taiwan for medical treatment, from dental to big surgeries!
Racism and discrimination against non-Taiwanese is perfectly legal in Taiwan. So why should the health care system be any different?
Yes. But they’re allowed to. Apparently they don’t like it if a westerner turns up with pre-existing conditions that requires expensive meds to treat. Even if that westerner has had continuous health insurance coverage for over a decade.
That is teh thing. We pay. We pay more. You are a resident. To make such a comment is, sorry to say, not very bright of the doctor. But there is this matural resentment towards foreigners, maybe cbecause when they were students they said something stupid and a foreigner laughed at them, instead of bowing like all people do to doctors, for example. And face is everything.
Or it cabn be what we call in Spanish “el ladron juzga por su condicion”. Someone who takes advantage of the system may think everyone is out to get him too.
And finally, there is the “a foreigenr is always a tourist”, “blood calls, you have to go home eventually”.
Remember that when they live abroad, many live in a bubble. They do not care who wins the elections, if there is war, whatever happens in teh city. But they can’t stand living here. It is too…backward for them. hence, the bubble.
Oh, and Taiwanese residents abroad pay a minimum…if they pay at all. A factory owrker pays more. But yeah, it si because of foreigners that the NHI is going bankrupt.
I can only speak from experience, and have always had excellent service here regarding Health issues. Even very serious things have been dealt with , without question. The only thing I find strange , is being asked if I would like “titanium” Pins/plates or regular ( which is free)…whilst being operated on in emergency situations, ONLY 100,000 NTD extra hehe.
GP’s are mostly more ‘pillslingers’ than doctor. They don’t go in depth.
The Taiwanese living overseas used to be able to turn up and pay one month health insurance and get full coverage. That was changed to 2 months and I believe there was a push to change it to a minimum of 6 months. But there was too much resistance to that. Especially considering most of the Taiwanese living overseas are more likley to vote KMT and it was Dog Ma trying to bring it in. On top of that you used to be able to get 3 months or 6 months or 1 years worth of medicine on one visit, particularly to a specialist. They’ve well and truly canned that one. At least from my personal experience.
Nowadays a doctor is more likely to ask me if I will be returning home soon and will only prescribe that amount of meds with maybe a 2 week window beyond it. And that 2 weeks extra is only if I know the doctor and we, for the most part, get along. Before the Ma Ying Jeiou Changes I never experienced anything like this. And I mean never. Doctors were always a pleasure, courteous, professional, curious, and then some. One of my regular doctors invited me to Chinese New Year dinner. This change has really only been the last 3 years or so and really since they started blaming foreigners for maxing out the Taiwan health system.
I understand more than most that there is no such thing as a perfect system. I have endured multiple bouts of physical rehab in multiple cities over many many years. I have letters and reports that I take with me to help make the process easier when it comes to new places and new doctors but even then it can be a nightmare. A ;are part of it is because I will not wait for them to treat me. Having been through all this shit I know that I have no choice but to look after myself. The system is really only there as a safeguard for me. It is part of the management program so that I can remain somewhat active. And the doctors that I have had that have participated in that, in the knowledge that I receive multiple forms of treatment as well as do hydrotherapy and yoga to manage my symptoms and condition, have always been excellent.
Then there’s the ones that don’t. And that goes to a whole new level of frustration and hair pulling. Thanks for the kind words. You said pretty much everything I have experienced about as nicely as anyone could say it.
If we were sincere, we could trace the problem to teh many elderly who collect pills, but that has been stopped. I suspect that expensive treatments for work related injuries and sickness, industrial accidents, and greediness basically -the horrible 500 plus people burned at the fire at the amusement park- all get dumped to public funding because you can’t touch politicians/big companies which are either in bed with each otehr or the same thing.