Anne Zhang

    zhangy49@gmail.com

    LOCAL hospitals in Shenzhen should offer services in English, be cleaner and cooperate with international insurance companies to become more expat-friendly, local expats told Shenzhen Daily.

    Many expats think the language barrier is the biggest problem when seeing a doctor at a Chinese hospital.

    Celia Martín del Pozo from Spain is a Spanish teacher at Shenzhen Polytechnic. She said she has been to the clinic at her university, a hospital in Huanggang and the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital. “I think that the only thing difficult or inconvenient about China’s medical services lies with the language,” Martín del Pozo said.

    If a hospital doesn’t have medical practitioners who can speak English, they should hire medical interpreters or have volunteers to translate for expats, she suggested.

    American Joyanne Garvey has been to four local hospitals. Although the language barrier is also a problem for her, she said the biggest thing that bothers her is poor sanitation.

    Many hospitals don’t provide toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms, and jars that contain patients’ urine for medical tests are not capped, which, Garvey said, upsets her. She urges Shenzhen hospitals to improve basic sanitation conditions.

    Luigi Mondino from Italy said Shenzhen is much more international than it was four years ago when he came to the city the first time.

    But many expats pay taxes or pay for their healthcare systems back in their home countries, so they can’t get their medical expenses covered in China, he said.

    He suggested that Shenzhen hospitals should cooperate with international insurance companies and that the local government should set up a system that allows expats to pay medical bills with their own national insurance.