5 ms·
> In asia you can walk into a clinic and see a doctor in 30m ... If you're rich relative to the general population, then you can go to an expensive private cli
by esperent 4y ago
> In asia you can walk into a clinic and see a doctor in 30m
... If you're rich relative to the general population, then you can go to an expensive private clinic and be seen quickly, yes.
I doubt that's the case for public hospitals and in any case, I've been inside public hospitals in Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam (all for other people's needs, nothing major thankfully). Trust me, you do not want to get treated in one of those and as a westerner you'll never even see them unless you friend gets bitten by a monkey in the Cambodian jungle (for example) and there's no private clinics nearby. I always assumed the casual attitude towards hygiene that Asian people have wouldn't extend to hospitals. I was wrong. There were literally blood stains on the wall in the corridor. The toilet was a hole in the ground with a bucket of water and a scoop to wash your hands and ass with. There was no soap. This wasn't a small hospital, it was the main hospital for a city of about 200k people.
- spaceman_2020 4y agoIt’s not terribly expensive. Most scans cost under $100 at the top facility in the wealthy part of Delhi. The cost would be 20-30% lower at centers in cheaper parts of the city. Delhi’s nominal per capita income is north of $6k. Even if you’re plain average, a $60-80 one time scan is within reach.
- shjake 4y agoSpending 10-20% of you monthly income on on a single test does not seem like a good deal at all.
- spaceman_2020 4y ago1. Government hospitals offer MRI scams at free or heavily subsidized prices to everyone. Going to a private clinic is optional 2. You typically don't need MRI scams all that often
- numpad0 4y agoEdit: replied to completely wrong comment. Below was supposed to go to one comment above. Government rate is $120 per imaging session, with standard 1/3 deductible. Minimum wage in Tokyo at this moment is $1336, so more like 3-5% after additional diagnosis and fees.
- lostlogin 4y agoI wonder how they do this. Just the scanner install, service contract and chilling is 6 figures, and the staffing is a significant sum. Maybe the throughout is very high (scan quality low)?
- jiggywiggy 4y agoLabor is cheap in india Doing low average 10 of day test is between 15-90 min, 30.000 p/m. Justifies the machine cost. Assuming weekends are open.
- lostlogin 4y agoYou wont pay many bills with 10 MRs a day even if your staff are cheap. They must be doing 50ish. And I have questions about the quality of the protocol and the resolution of the scans.
- spaceman_2020 4y agoRent in India is pretty cheap. Even for residential apartments, rental yield in Delhi is not more than 2%.
- jiggywiggy 4y agoNot sure you are aware of low income, low rent countries dynamics.
- lostlogin 4y agoI’m not. It’s more that I’m aware of MR equipment costs, and I can’t see the equipment being discounted.
- jiggywiggy 4y agoYou can get them for 300-500k in dollars on indiamart. Salary of medical assistent around 3 dollars per hour. A few k per month would definitely make the purchase worthwhile.
- justinclift 4y ago> I always assumed the casual attitude towards hygiene that Asian people have ... Hmmm, might be generalising a bit too much there. As a generalisation (too, heh) people in Japan seem to be fairly careful with hygiene.
- raverbashing 4y agoAsia is a big region and using "Asian" to describe people from different areas seems overgeneralizating to me at least (though it's the language customs that do that)
- varjag 4y agoI propose Expasia as a name for the kind of Asia Westerners can usually relate to.
- Cthulhu_ 4y agoEast or Southeast asia is often pretty accurate to describe the region that westerners think of.
- justinclift 4y agoWeirdly enough, that's not completely accurate as I discovered from moving to the UK. In Australia (where I initially moved from), the term "Asian" does indeed refer to people from East or Southeast Asia. But it turns out for people in the UK, the term "Asian" refers to people from India (and immediate area I guess). (!) For East/Southeast Asia, they use the term "Oriental". It sure surprised the heck out of me.
- varjag 4y agoWell not sure how they would relate to North Korea or Guinea.
- esperent 4y agoWell, as a "European", I feel your frustration. But in this context I think it's fair to assume that people are talking about the parts of Asia where westerners are likely to go for cheap healthcare. Which basically means SEA + India.
- codewiz 4y agoBack when I lived in Japan, my employer-sponsored yearly health screening had an optional head MRI exam. I could book it a few days before, and would take 15 minutes with a single technician. Now it costs around $300: https://www.tokyomidtown-mc.jp/en/pdf/optional_menu.pdf https://www.tokyomidtown-mc.jp/en/pdf/optional_menu.pdf
- lostlogin 4y agoMR screening is a great way to increase unnecessary biopsy and stress etc except in a very narrow range of conditions. Edit: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/1/e056572 https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/1/e056572
- zarzavat 4y agoThat’s a problem with the interpretation, and how results are presented to patients. The MRI scanner is working as intended but the humans are getting the probabilities wrong, as usual.
- lostlogin 4y agoSpecificity is not always high. Yes, it’s an interpretation issue, but it’s a know problem. A better radiologist might help, but the issue is that many things look the same or very very similar on MRI. Evidence based medicine is the way to go.
- landryraccoon 4y agoThis is a really weird claim to me. It can’t be about the MRI itself, it must be about the surrounding politics or legal environment. How can it ever be bad to have more objective data? Having a test result to ignore is still strictly better than not testing at all. You still have the option to ignore or discount the test results if you want to. If you’re forced to do otherwise that’s entirely a human problem, not a technological one.
- lostlogin 4y ago
- throwaway2990 4y agoYou don’t need to be rich, and it doesn’t matter if it’s public or private. Having lived in 6 countries in Asia over 20 years it’s never been expensive, difficult, dirty, or anything like you describe. Well the exception being Singapore. That was expensive but covered by insurance so it still cost $0. Edit: another thing. What is with the west more or less forcing natural birth and kicking you out of the hospital the next day? I would hate to give birth in a western country. Thankfully my kids were born in Asia. Hospital took care of baby and mum for 6 days then we left the hospital. Cost was 2 weeks salary.
- bschwindHN 4y agoYou can get an MRI in Japan with insurance for less than 10,000 yen (~$75).