I’ve heard that Taiwanese doctors are flooding the market here by going abroad for cheap and easy schooling, and that has meant that many Taiwanese medical students are getting their medical training in Poland (where supposedly medical degrees are easiest to obtain), and then using them here, filling hospitals and clinics. The issue, as I’ve heard it, is that the practice hurts the medical profession in this country, because unskilled doctors take on patients who I guess otherwise wouldn’t have died if the doctors had earned their medical degrees and licenses at more reputable schools in more reputable countries for studying medicine.
I was told this practice was widespread not so long ago within Taiwan. Medical schools back in the bad old days were pretty shit and you could basically grease the right palms and “buy” your medical degree. Apparently doctors then expected to get back their investment by accepting hong bao in return for actually bothering to give a cursory glance at your relative on the gurney. Having listened to some of the horror stories from people who have suffered at the hands of Taiwanese “medics”, and experienced some WTF? moments myself (especially from the older ones), I have no doubt at all this was true. Might be different nowadays, but I doubt standards have improved a lot. You’ll notice a lot of reputable doctors and dentists acquired their degrees in the US and Europe, not in Taiwan.
I’d be surprised if Poland were the source of fake medical degrees. There are a lot of Polish dentists turning up in England and (generally speaking) have a good reputation. Might be true, of course, but I suspect it’s one of those urban myths propagated by Apple Daily to save local face.
There’s a bit of an issue in the UK at the moment where 63% of all doctors struck off trained abroad. When you factor in the percentage of the total who train abroad this becomes a pretty shocking figure. As usual the British Medical Association is looking to improve their communication skills as a way to reduce this - rather than admit the fact that some medical schools in some countries are churning out incompetent medical practitioners. We westerners are adept at punishing ourselves .
Never heard that Polish medical training was particularly below par, though.
I once had a Taiwanese hospital doctor telling me that I had suffered heart failure, on the basis that I told him that I had chest pains (which turned out to be caused by stress and anxiety). And this before the results of any of the tests- which all came back negative.
And this when I was only about 38 years old.
Words come very easy in Taiwan. Thoughts come later. Even for doctors.
Sorry, this is nothing to with our Polish friends, of course …
It’s similar in the U.S.; in the last ten years or so, only one of the physicians who made the news for reusing syringes on patients, infecting many with hepatitis and other lovely diseases etc. etc., was not Indian/Pakistani. They bring their habits over from the old country, where it just doesn’t matter because most of their patients are too poor to sue them anyway. Then they’re shocked, yes, shocked that patients in the U.S. get pissed off about it.
I had one shove a used ear/nose light thingie (the ones with the plastic cones that slip over the front) up my nose one time. She’d left it on the light when she hung it up, I had a horrendous cold that had turned into bronchitis, she shoved it up my nose to get a look (why? well, why not?), and then she hung it on the wall again. I’m sure the next patient would have appreciated catching it from me. I threw the cone into the trash while she stepped out, but she probably picked it out after I left. . . .
I think one of the main issues about Polish medical degree mills is that a lot of the medical schools have programs tailored for non-EU citizens in which the instruction is in English and the allocated time for clinical education/clerkship is insufficient to non-existent. Graduates from those programs apparently do not meet board exam eligibility even in Poland because the curriculum is all in English.
Medical Board of California, for instance, will only recognize some of the non-English programs in Poland as a valid medical degree, so this isn’t unique to Taiwan. Since medical education tends to be heavily subsidized or supported by the government, there is some degree of prejudice against physicians with foreign medical degrees in most countries; it’s just that patients typically do not hear about it since this is more or less behind-the-scenes stuff. Foreign med school graduates in the US, for example, are much less likely to obtain residency training, which is part of the requirements to obtaining board certification, than American grads.
The big controversy about Polish-educated physicians in Taiwan, however, is their path of certification. The Ministry of Health stipulates that Polish med school grads need to pass additional exams prior to getting board certification, which a lot of degree holders gripe about because their locally trained counterparts do not need to do this. Local doctors however feel shafted because while they toil away in a 7-year program, graduates from Poland only need to do 4-6 years of school and thus technically get 1-2 more years of earning potential.
It’s similar in the U.S.; in the last ten years or so, only one of the physicians who made the news for reusing syringes on patients, infecting many with hepatitis and other lovely diseases etc. etc., was not Indian/Pakistani. They bring their habits over from the old country, where it just doesn’t matter because most of their patients are too poor to sue them anyway. Then they’re shocked, yes, shocked that patients in the U.S. get pissed off about it.[/quote]
I just ran a search of news stories on doctors in the U.S. reusing needles. Over several pages of results I found many names that were not Indian/Pakistani and no names that were.
I’m not going yo repeat my ER story here, I know there good and bad doctors and if you have connections with hospital staff working at good hospitals, that’s s good thing,
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]I’m not going yo repeat my ER story here, I know there are good and bad doctors and if you have connections with hospital staff working at excellent hospitals, that’s s good thing,
It’s similar in the U.S.; in the last ten years or so, only one of the physicians who made the news for reusing syringes on patients, infecting many with hepatitis and other lovely diseases etc. etc., was not Indian/Pakistani. They bring their habits over from the old country, where it just doesn’t matter because most of their patients are too poor to sue them anyway. Then they’re shocked, yes, shocked that patients in the U.S. get pissed off about it.[/quote]
I just ran a search of news stories on doctors in the U.S. reusing needles. Over several pages of results I found many names that were not Indian/Pakistani and no names that were.[/quote]
But you also know that this is not a place to spread factual information. I’m sure many people can complain about the doctors here, but I am also sure that the majority of them are pretty good. Unfortunately, the good ones don’t make the news.
Ah, a thread about doctors in Taiwan.
Quite supercilious!
In my own experience, dealing with doctors in Taiwan has been far easier than dealing with same in the Occident.
Same with mechaincs.
Both professionals over here are far more willing to accept a self analysis from the subject at hand, than any Western doctor would.
That might be just an inferiority complex, but in point of fact most doctors in the west suffer themselves from a superiority complex. They can’t imagine a plebe walking in off the street and describing medical conditions.
Better, it seems, to make them wait for useless advice.
It’s similar in the U.S.; in the last ten years or so, only one of the physicians who made the news for reusing syringes on patients, infecting many with hepatitis and other lovely diseases etc. etc., was not Indian/Pakistani. They bring their habits over from the old country, where it just doesn’t matter because most of their patients are too poor to sue them anyway. Then they’re shocked, yes, shocked that patients in the U.S. get pissed off about it.[/quote]
I just ran a search of news stories on doctors in the U.S. reusing needles. Over several pages of results I found many names that were not Indian/Pakistani and no names that were.[/quote]
But you also know that this is not a place to spread factual information. I’m sure many people can complain about the doctors here, but I am also sure that the majority of them are pretty good. Unfortunately, the good ones don’t make the news.[/quote]
Where is “here”? I was discussing the situation in the UK and Impaler was discussing the USA. Which of our posts are you referring to? My information was factual in that it came directly from the British Medical Association - a body that is famously loathe to strike off any doctor if at all possible
As for Taiwanese doctors I have only ever seen two general practitioners in my time here. One of them is outstanding (I still go to him on the rare occasion that I need to), and the other was shite and dangerously misdiagnosed me. I don’t draw any conclusions from that 50:50 personal experience
It’s similar in the U.S.; in the last ten years or so, only one of the physicians who made the news for reusing syringes on patients, infecting many with hepatitis and other lovely diseases etc. etc., was not Indian/Pakistani. They bring their habits over from the old country, where it just doesn’t matter because most of their patients are too poor to sue them anyway. Then they’re shocked, yes, shocked that patients in the U.S. get pissed off about it.[/quote]
I just ran a search of news stories on doctors in the U.S. reusing needles. Over several pages of results I found many names that were not Indian/Pakistani and no names that were.[/quote]
But you also know that this is not a place to spread factual information. I’m sure many people can complain about the doctors here, but I am also sure that the majority of them are pretty good. Unfortunately, the good ones don’t make the news.[/quote]
Where is “here”? I was discussing the situation in the UK and Impaler was discussing the USA. Which of our posts are you referring to? My information was factual in that it came directly from the British Medical Association - a body that is famously loathe to strike off any doctor if at all possible
As for Taiwanese doctors I have only ever seen two general practitioners in my time here. One of them is outstanding (I still go to him on the rare occasion that I need to), and the other was shite and dangerously misdiagnosed me. I don’t draw any conclusions from that 50:50 personal experience [/quote]
Here is Taiwan. I was also commenting on the Impaler quote not really on yours but that is a thorny issue.
[quote=“TheGingerMan”]Ah, a thread about doctors in Taiwan.
Quite supercilious!
In my own experience, dealing with doctors in Taiwan has been far easier than dealing with same in the Occident.
Same with mechaincs.
Both professionals over here are far more willing to accept a self analysis from the subject at hand, than any Western doctor would.
That might be just an inferiority complex, but in point of fact most doctors in the west suffer themselves from a superiority complex. They can’t imagine a plebe walking in off the street and describing medical conditions.
Better, it seems, to make them wait for useless advice.[/quote]
I am pretty sure that you would not be terribly happy either if someone off the street came to your office and started ordering you around, claiming that they knew how your job worked.
Licensed practicing physicians in most countries go through roughly the same amount and kind of medical and clinical training, and most of them were also taught not to let patients strong-arm you into a diagnosis you did not arrive at based on the medical evidence presented to you. Even though common ailments could easily be cured with stuff like painkillers, antibiotics and corticosteroids it does not mean you would know what the proper dosage is or which potential problems self-medication may arise. I wouldn’t trust a DDX I made on myself beyond extremely minor symptoms without getting someone else to confirm it.
The issue with doctors in the west is that their laziness (in letting the patient self-diagnose) may come back to bite them in the rear in the form of medical malpractice suits, something that remains of a nonissue until recently in Taiwan.
.