Anyone ever had any cancer screenings done here?
If so how much did it cost you?
I have national health insurance but I’m assuming that wouldn’t cover it but not sure.
I want to get a mouth and throat cancer check.
They’ll put a scope down your throat and do blood tests. Entirely covered by NHI. I’ve had it done twice. If anything untoward turns up, you’ll be sent for an MRI scan. Again, covered by NHI.
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Just go to a hospital and see someone in the 血液腫瘤 department.
It will just be basic consultation costs.
Isn’t socialized medicine awful?
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Wow ok well that’s freaking awesome! Thanks!
The camera down the throat is.surprisingly far.more uncomfortable than the one up the butt. But.i have hear they have much smaller ones.now. Anyone.know .about that?
還好.
Just have to do the first big swallow to get the cable-cam past the back of the throat. Once past that, it’s okay, from my experience.
I dint know man. I was in a lot of.pain at the time whuch is why they were checking. The tube isnt painful but is insanely uncomfortable for me. it made me.puke a few times. Well, bile and dry heave cause you dont anything for xx hours. That was a long time ago and they said they are planning to buy new equipment which has a smaller diameter. Still get gag reflex everytime the dentist gets too intimate with the suction…maybe im just a princess.
I have an extreme gag reflex. They tried, but eventually sent me off to pay 6k for general anesthesia, Not cheap, but it couldn’t have been done otherwise.
God forbid, but if it is needed, The Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center in Guandu / New Taipei is imo one of the better places to go.
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I underwent it 2 months ago for a stomach check, and although not nice, found it quite doable.
Bit like the first time diving, just concentrating on keep breathing in stead of panicking.
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So do I, but I was able to handle it just fine. They sprayed some local anesthetic I think and then down through the nose goes the hose.
Yeah, I suspect you’re right. I’ve only ever had the upper endoscopy, but I found that so unpleasant/stressful that I’d go the other way without hesitation next time, if I had to choose between the two. I know you technically can still breathe with the camera down your throat, but I really felt like I was drowning at some points - I had to grab onto the nurse’s hand and try to motion what the problem was.
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Would recommend the Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center in Taipei too. The cancer survival rate they have published far exceeds that of other hospitals in Taiwan. They provide excellent quality care.
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Do you have any idea where those kind of statistics have been published?
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Thank you !
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Very impressive, any idea how they’re able to achieve those kind of superior results?
There’s a Harvard Business School case study on that hospital that talks about their team-based, integrated care process (not many hospitals are this closely examined on their exemplary practices). They also highly value quality over simply making a profit unlike other hospitals in Taiwan.
https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=38210
National Health Insurance in Taiwan basically runs on a fee for service model (i.e., for each patient a doctor sees, the hospital gets money for the visit). Unfortunately, most hospitals here don’t measure the quality of care that’s being delivered. So if you had a surgical complication that required additional days at the hospital, NHI would theoretically just continue paying for the care that’s being received even though the initial care was at the detriment to the patient. Hospitals have no real incentive to make sure care is of high quality since it’s economically irrational.
KFSYSCC basically looked at that payment model and said it’s not feasible over the long run for society and it’s not fair to the patient. They pioneered the bundle care payment model for the country by asking the government if they could take on more financial risk in the hopes of demonstrating better care. Essentially the government pays the cancer center a sum of money and they have to make sure they provide good quality care so that patients have good results over time and not require additional care in 5-years of follow-up. Results of that effort are shown in the article below.
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What did you end up doing? What was your experience like?