| Medical Treatment in Tokyo |
| Written by David Moss |
| Thursday, 06 May 2010 09:25 |
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On our last trip to Tokyo I unfortunately became ill. It's not great being ill in any country but when there is a huge language barrier and you can't read anything it becomes a real problem. So I thought I would write a brief article on how I found the whole process and to try and make anyone else who has to go for medical help in Japan's life a bit easier. We were lucky in the fact that we were staying at the Hotel Metropolitan in Ikebukuro. This is a nice hotel and the staff are very helpful. The hotel phoned a local hospital and arranged for me to see a doctor very quickly. But after the event we found out that there are a few English speaking doctors in Tokyo that we could have spoken too. Because the hotel had phoned the doctors they arranged for a member of staff to go with us and help translate. I felt pretty bad about this as it must be quite embarrassing for a hotel staff member to do this. As soon as we arrived at the hospital I was seen by a nurse who asked me a few questions in basic English. This was a nice surprise and made the whole situation a lot easier. I then had my temperature and blood pressure taken; this is the same the world over. At this point I was ushered into the doctor's area which was just a small area sectioned off in a large room. There were lots of people moving around and fair amount of noise, so not really the most private treatment I have ever had. The doctor's English was pretty good so I was able to explain my problems and he new what I needed which was good. As part of my test I was given an ultrasound scan of my kidneys so was required to undo my belt and top button of my trousers while laying on a table. The nurse immediately covered my legs with a blanket to cover me up even though nothing was on show and I was in a really busy room! I'm not sure why I would suddenly get shy at this point but they seemed to think I would. Once you are finished being treated you are given some receipts and other paperwork. Without our helpful hotel assistant with us we would not have known what to do next. It turned out we needed to go to the payment area and pay the bill. As you would expect in Japan this is all automated and you simply insert a special plastic card you have been given into a machine and it tells you what you owe. Be warned this is expensive. I paid about £150 pounds for my treatment, and that did not include the prescriptions that we still had to get. With the bill settled it was on to get the drugs I had been prescribed, again without the help of our hotel guide I really don't know how we would have worked this out. Even he seemed a little confused, but worked it out in the end. We just needed to go across the road near the exit to the dispensary. Now this was lovely for a man feeling ill as it was staffed by a selection of lovely Japanese ladies who really went out of their way to help. I had some forms to fill in about allergies, not that I would have known this without the translation help but it was soon sorted. Then we just waited while it was all packed up in very neat bags all labelled with what the drug was, a picture of what the pills looked like so you could easily work out which ones were which. And then it just needed to be paid for, another £30 odd pounds. This may only sound a lot to someone from the UK as most of our health care is free, but it is worth knowing in advance. So all in all it took about two hours from speaking to the front desk at the hotel to being back in our hotel room. The hospital in Japan was actually very similar to one in the UK. It was clean and modern and, as you would expect, the staff were friendly and courteous. The pharmacy was also modern and bright with soft music playing to give it a relaxing atmosphere. If you are not in such a rush to see a doctor it is worth having a look on the web for English speaking doctors in the local area as there seem to be a few around. We found this one: Tokyo British Clinic in Ebisu. I spoke to the doctor on the phone but luckily it was not necessary for me to visit the clinic. The costs will still be the same since it's private medical treatment, but at least you will not require any help with translation. Overall I have to say it was not a bad experience, being ill is no fun in any country but if you are being treated by nice people and quickly there is not much more you can ask for. |
