Potential Medical Emergency-advice please?

[Madot]

Does anyone know how to locate an English-speaking doctor in the vicinty of BLCU? I know there are super-expensive clinics and stuff meant for rich expats downtown (and thank you to those kind people who gave me their telephone numbers), but I just want a local doctor. Does such a thing exist? I mean, do people have family medical practitioners? The BLCU Hospital --well, someone there--told a kind Chinese friend of mine who was acting as interpreter that they didn't have any English-speaking doctors. I have asthma and have just contracted a really nasty cold which can spell trouble so I wanted to know what to do, how to get a doctor, in case things get worse.

Can anyone help? How does one go about finding a doctor who speaks English?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Mado

[roddy]

If you're not able to make it over to the places that cater to foreigners in Chaoyang - not necessarily the hugely expensive ones, the Xiehe at Dongdan has a wing catering to foreigners at (high-end) Chinese prices - then I think all you can really do is ask around a few local places. To be honest, I think you'll be better off making sure a Chinese friend is available to accompany you and aware of what issues will need to be explained / discussed.

[Madot]

Thanks for that, Roddy. When you say "ask around", whom? Who might know? I tried at the Xijiao Hotel, but they don't have any list of doctors. I can't think who else to ask. Any ideas?

Mado

[roddy]

Hospitals and other foreigners, I'm afraid - I'm pretty sure there isn't any kind of list. Sorry I can't be more help.

[skylee]

Would this page help? -> http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/beijing_hospitals.html

[roddy]

The only one on that list that could be called near to BLCU would be Beijing Medical University's #3 Hospital - might be worth calling / visiting to try and find out if they have any English speakers on staff.

[liuzhou]

do people have family medical practitioners?

No. They go to the local hospital.

I would be surprised if a reasonably large local hospital in Beijing didn't have English speakers. Even here, in the outback, the local Workers' Hospital has an excellent medical translator.

[roddy]

Perhaps I'm being over-sceptical about availability of English speakers then - fortunately I've had very little contact with hospitals here.

[Madot]

Thanks everyone! It looks as though I'll just use the antibiotics I have and/or buy more of same and in case of real emergency (unfortunately not that uncommon with asthma), I'll just have to go to the 'good' hospital and let travel insurance sort it out. At home (or in other western countries), I suppose I would have the comfort of a medical practitioner who would confirm that, yes, it's time to go to hospital or, no, it's o.k. to wait. But I'm a big girl. I'll deal with it. Thanks to everyone for your input.

Mado

[ocpaul20]

I know this is a bit of a plug for EFT, but there does seem to be a lot of evidence that asthma can be helped/eliminated by the consistent use of EFT. It works for some people, so why not for you?

http://www.emofree.com/articles.aspx?id=6

You might want to try it if you think the asthma is annoying but not too serious and that way you can see if it helps without being in a life-or-death situation. There is a free manual on the website to tell you how to do the simple EFT procedure, or, of course, you can contact me.

[Madot]

Does anyone know where there is a large pharmacy with Western medicine near BLCU, Wudaokou, etc.? I am in desperate need of a particular antibiotic as I am life-threateningly allergic to many others. I was told that such antibiotics (i.e. Ceclor) were freely available at pharmacies here in China without a prescription and under their English name so I brought one course with me but it isn't enough for the present illness. When I went to the local pharmacy (admittedly a small one) they said they didn't have any English medicines. Obviously I need a larger more well stocked pharmacy. Please contact me at: cincotta@uow.edu.au ASAP if you can help direct me.

Thanks.

Mado