It is commonly seen that Chinese people go to the United States where medical technology is most developed to seek medical treatment. However, it is a rare case for an American coming to China for medical service. Recently, Fuda Cancer Hospital, affiliated to Jinan University in Guangzhou, has received an American lady.
About one month ago, Mary, an 80-year-old lady from New York, arrived at Guangzhou alone after a long flight. The feelings of uneasiness and doubt overwhelmed her, partly from her breast cancer and partly from her insecurity in this foreign land. After one-month treatment in Fuda Cancer Hospital, those feelings were gone and were replaced by gratefulness and happiness. She has a growing interest in this beautiful city, Guangzhou, and she’d like to stay for one more month to explore the place that has changed her life.
Behind this attitude change, what has happened to Mary during her treatment in Fuda?
1. Traveling a thousand miles for medical treatment
Mary is a native in Colorado, US. In July 2017, she found a lump in her right breast, along with an ulcer on surface. Biopsy at a local hospital in New York confirmed the diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma (ER+++, PR+++, Her-2(-)), and she had a variety of endocrine treatments at local hospitals.
“I don’t want a traditional surgery, because it may cause more damage to me. Can there be any other options?” Mary asked the doctor. She was told that cryoablation can be an alternative. It is a minimally invasive surgery and the cost for each treatment is about 20,000 USD in the U.S. “The treatment is quite expensive and cannot be covered by insurance.” Mary said.
A friend introduced to Mary’s son the treatment in Fuda Cancer Hospital in Guangzhou, China. He learnt that Fuda has rich experience in cryoablation and the cost is much lower than that in the United States.
On the advice of her son, Mary decided to visit Fuda for medical treatment.
2. “She walked and searched a whole street for my favorite dumplings”
On the morning of May 21, 2018, Mary’s flight arrived at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. Staff from Fuda had already been waiting there. This is the first time for Mary to travel across the ocean and to visit China. Knowing nothing about Chinese, Mary was quite worried about the communication.
However, Mary soon found her worry unnecessary. Fuda has arranged a fluent English speaker, Miss Chen Xiaohui, to receive her at the airport. Xiaohui used to be a nurse, and is now a staff for customer service in Department of International Affairs that takes care of all foreign patients.
Xiaohui recalled that when Mary just arrived at the hospital, she was quite alert and had little trust in people around her. “She asked every staff to leave the office when she made a phone call there. I don’t know if it’s because that she is afraid of being heard by others”, said Xiaohui.
It was already 6 p.m. after Mary finished the admission procedures. At this time, Xiaohui had returned home from work. Knowing that Mary had not had dinner yet, she went back to the hospital. “Mary came to Guangzhou alone and she knows nobody here. It’s gonna be difficult for her to find the food she wants”, Xiaohui thought.
“I want to eat dumplings”, Mary told Xiaohui. Dumpling represents Chinese foods, and she would like to have a try.
Though Xiaohui knew that there was no restaurant serving dumplings near the hospital, she agreed still. She took Mary all the way to find a restaurant that served dumplings.
“In search of a dumplings restaurant, she walked a whole street!” Mary felt so grateful when she recalled that day.
Two hours had past, yet they were not able to find a dumpling restaurant. Worrying about Mary’s physical condition, Xiaohui asked Mary if she would like to try Wonton, which is similar to dumpling and also represents Chinese food.
“Sure. I’d love to.” Mary agreed. In a noodle restaurant, the two finally had some hot wonton. “The taste was quite special! Not bad!” recalled Mary.
During her stay in Fuda, doctors provided Mary with the much needed medical treatment and service team helped Mary in every way they can, from buying food to shopping at local market. All doubts and suspicions of Mary were gone, and what’s left was gratitude and happiness. Mary said, metaphorically, that the nurses were capable of delivering whatever she asked for.
Mary’s cryosurgery was very successful. “Pain and symptoms wear off within 24 hours”, she said.
On June 24th, Mary was discharged from Fuda. She took photos with Dr. Niu Lizhi, a vice president of Fuda, who performed cryosurgery for her.
After the cryosurgery, Mary planned to stay in Guangzhou for another month. In addition to completing the follow-up rehabilitation treatment, she also made plans to experience the charm of this city. “I am trying to learn Chinese!” Mary said, as she fetched out a mini Chinese-English dictionary from her bag.
3. Why they come to China for medical treatment?
We are seeing an increasing number of patients from western countries traveling to Asian countries for medical service. China is becoming one of the most popular destinations for medical tourism. Fuda has helped patients from over 100 countries globally.
How could this happen?
Let’s first look at the situation in Canada, where medical system is relatively well-established. Its Medicare system is funded by special grants from federal government and fiscal grants from provincial governments, as well as deductions (less than 1%) from individual tax revenue.
However, people there find it not easy to have this “free lunch”. Due to the limited resource in Canada’s health-care system, many patients have to queue for quite a long time for surgical treatments.
According to statistics from Fraser Institute in 2013, the average time for a Canadian patient to be recommended from a family doctor to a specialist is 17.8 weeks; the average waiting time for a CT diagnosis is about 1 month, and the waiting time for a general B-ultrasound is 4 weeks.
The long waiting time for surgeries and examinations is not the only trouble. Even if an ordinary blood test is done, it takes half a month for a patient to obtain the result; and based on the test result, it will take another several weeks or even months for the follow-up visit. Therefore, some patients choose to visit doctors in emergency department, no matter whether their conditions are urgent or not. Besides, many patients have to go abroad for medical treatment to get a quick treatment, and their expenses can be reimbursed after returning to their own countries. However, they should obtain approval in advance for their treatments which may cost a huge amount of money; otherwise it would be difficult for them to get reimbursement.
How is the situation In United States, where the most advanced medical resources are believed to be provided?
Public hospitals in the United States provide basic medical services. As the oldest public hospital in the United States, Bellevue Hospital provides medical services to about 60% homeless people in New York City. Private hospitals provide basic and high-end medical services to most Americans, and those specialized hospitals for cancers and other intractable diseases, and research institutes, dental and ophthalmological clinics all belong to private hospitals.
Living in New York, Mary has health insurance, but the cryosurgery is a self-funded project, and the cost for each treatment there is as high as 20,000 USD. She and her son had carefully calculated the bill, finding that the treatment cost would be much lower in China than that in the United States, even with fees for round-trip tickets and accommodation counted, but the precondition is that the treatment received in China achieves the same therapeutic effect as that in the United States.
Wang Yuandong, one of vice presidents in Fuda Cancer Hospital, introduced that, boosted by the well-funded medical industry and medical technology innovation, cancer treatment in the United States is generally better than that in China. However, China is catching up fast. In Chinese philosophy, people believe in moderation, based on which new thoughts of cancer treatment are developed. In fact, Chinese doctors are more experienced in treating such cancers as esophageal cancer and gastric cancer which are commonly detected in China.
Besides the satisfying treatment effect, Mary was also very satisfied with the nursing service provided by Fuda Cancer Hospital. She knows clearly that the same service is available in the United States, yet at much higher cost.
