This is part III of a series. Click here to read from the beginning. We are behind in posting updates on our prenatal care, so expect another one soon!
During my first successful prenatal visit in Ningbo, a few
of the blood tests the doctor wanted me to get had to be done while fasting
(i.e. before breakfast). They asked me
if I would stay overnight in a hotel and come the next morning. Seriously.
I told them no way, I had a baby at home and, to be honest, I never had
a prenatal blood test in the U.S. that required fasting and wasn’t sure these
blood tests were even necessary. I also
didn’t have my passport with me, and if you stay overnight anywhere other than
your residence, you have to register your passport with the police. After I refused, the English speaking nurse
said, “oh, then just get these ones done at the Sanmen Hospital and bring the
results next time.” Wait, you wanted me
to stay overnight to have a blood test done that I can just have done
locally? They scribbled the test names
on to a scrap of paper and told me to give it to the other hospital.
Knowing from past experience that just walking into a
Chinese hospital is not feasible for foreigners, I sent an e-mail to our site
doctor. There is always a doctor
available here on site 24 hours a day – and they have office hours during the
day. However, they have limited
equipment available to them, their training is sometimes suspect, and the
normal diagnosis (for anything from a cough to a fever) is usually, “you should
go to Shanghai for this.”
So I just sent an e-mail to the site doctor with a scan of
the blood tests they wanted done locally and asked him how to navigate the
Sanmen hospital. He was actually very
helpful. He wrote out step-by-step
directions in English and Mandarin and even offered to go with me. I declined though, since I knew our ayi would
be with us. Mark also decided he wanted
to see a Chinese hospital so he came along too.
The Sanmen People’s Hospital is about 40 minutes away from
where we live. We rode the normal
Tuesday morning bus into town which is provided weekly for the spouses of the
expat employees. When we get to the
hospital, there are people with severe injuries roaming around. We have to sidestep some puke to get through
the door – and we know it didn’t just happen.
Obvious things like that are left to sit while workers do other
meaningless duties like sweep leaves.
Our ayi was armed with the directions from the site doctor
and went up to the head nurses station as instructed. However, the head nurse started arguing with
her. Soon we were told (via our electronic
translator) that they couldn’t help me.
Knowing that wasn’t supposed to be the case, I ran outside and called
the site doctor. I then handed the phone
to our ayi who passed it on to the head nurse.
Apparently he straightened things out, because soon after that I had my
registration book (again, my name is “Hui Li”) and was sent upstairs. We think the problem may have been that they
thought I should go to Ningbo for this stuff since that’s who was doing my
prenatal care? We’re not really
sure. Everything else was quick. The blood draw was efficient and we were on
our way – told to pick up the results around 2PM. Our bus back to the site was at 11:30AM
though, so LiLi and I had to be driven back to the hospital just to grab the
results later that afternoon. Yes, a bit
annoying, but a lot less so than going all the way to Ningbo!
We now know for sure that we’re glad we’re not delivering at
the Sanmen Hospital. The place is run
like a bus station and the overall feeling is “dirty”. While Ningbo isn’t much better in some
regards, they are better equipped to deal with emergencies.
The flow sheet Mark’s HR department gave us on what to do if
we have a medical emergency actually tells you to only go to Sanmen to be
stabilized in a “dire emergency” and refer to it as a “borderline” hospital. You should then be transferred immediately to
Ningbo (or preferably Shanghai). They
are too overcrowded and under sanitized.
They are okay for x-rays, ultrasounds, lab tests, and imaging though. Most of the Ningbo hospitals don’t fare much better
in the analysis, but the hospital we are going to for my prenatal care is
listed as “acceptable” and it says “It would be possible for an expat woman to
safely deliver at this hospital.”
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