Bumrungrad

Guess what? I have a trifling of thoracic spondylosis, my aorta is slightly calcified, and, I am now what is known as a ‘medical tourist’. Cool. Let me explain.

There are over 1.2 million “medical tourists” who annually travel to Thailand for treatments, making it one of the world’s top destination for medical travel. A few weeks ago, I became one of those 1.2 million. Thailand offers medical treatments to patients at some of the lowest prices in the world, without the slightest compromise in the quality of care offered. In fact, the cost of medical treatment here, amounts to a saving of approximately 40%-60% of the prices paid for similar treatments in more developed countries.   

All my life, I have had my yearly medical check-ups with my family doctor in Canada, except for that one time in Germany many years ago when I put out my back playing dodge ball with the kids and ended up in this 80+ year old doctor's office at the local hospital. Besides the excrutiating pain I was in, I remember the visit well: I walked into his office, told him my back hurt, he cleared the top of his desk, told me to take my pants off and lay on my back on his desk…(needless to say, this is where I started thinking that “I hurt my back” had been lost in translation…) and then he twisted me around like pretzel dough until I heard a snap/crunch/click, after which he told me to put my pants back on and made me promise to never tell anyone about what he had done to me. Other than that one time, I have always put my unequivocal trust into our good old family doctor back in Vancouver, Dr. T, who has cared for my family and I through thick and thin for the past 40+ years. But this year, since I
am an expat living in Bangkok, and since every one I know who has lived and who is currently living here has told me how wonderful (and inexpensive) health care is here, and after Madeleine had experienced this impressive health care service herself last year at one of the top medical facilities in Bangkok, I opted to try a little “medical tourism” myself and have my yearly check-up at the world famous Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok. Besides, I thought that whatever would come out of the experience would probably be great blog material. 

Although Madeleine had not done her check-up at Bumrungrad, our friends from Guangzhou who fly in every year for their annual check-ups invited us along last fall when they visited the hospital. I liked what I saw. After a little research, I determined that Bumrungrad Hospital, with its special health checkup packages, would be the best choice for what I wanted to get done.  

I booked my health screening appointment online. The hospital actually has a “Health Check-up: Package Comparison” webpage, where you can pick from a menu of packages based on your age and sex. If you would like something more customized, you can choose specifically which options or extras you want on the “Check-up Package Personalization Page.” Last time I got this excited about ordering online was when I ordered a Big Mac at a self-ordering kiosks at a McDonalds in Beijing. Who would have thought a few years ago that one day I would be able to order a Big Mac, never mind a colonoscopy!, via a self-serve kiosk?

In any case, to keep things simple, I opted for the “Comprehensive (Over 40)” medical checkup package, a procedure that would take between 4 to 6 hours to complete. 6 hours of getting pricked, prodded, and poked all over this temple of a body of mine, not to mention submitting my temple to a half dozen odd radiological examinations, sonographies, exercise stress performance test and ear & eye exam. I would be EkG'ed, EST'ed, and PRE'ed...nothing less than  the full meal deal. I could choose a date and the time for the checkup, and the ‘order’ would be confirmed 24 hours later.  And so it was, I was going in the following Tuesday at 10am. 

The lobby at Bumrungrad Hospital

The day of the appointment, I arrived 30 minutes early and was instructed to go up to the 11th floor to the “Sky Lobby Patient Registration Center”. It quickly became obvious that this was going to be no ordinary doctor's visit. Instead of being confronted with the usual antiseptic odours, harsh lighting and utilitarian furnishings commonly associated with hospitals, this place was actually pleasant. At first glance, it looked more like I had wandered into a five-star hotel than a medical treatment facility. There were floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city, art on the walls, water gardens, coffee shops and a bookstore. The lobby had great, useful signage, in multiple languages (actually, the floor numbers were roman numerals, thai numerals, or fruit. Floor 11 was the pineapple floor).  And so, as I pushed the pineapple button in the elevator, my Bumrungrad experience began...