Medical Examinations in a Japanese Hospital
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hey guys, so the rice is getting just high enough now that it's starting to get that
00:05nice swaying thing going in the wind, starting to get a nice ocean effect, so it'll start
00:12to produce grains soon and then off it'll go from there.
00:16So today's video is for our healthcare in Japan playlist.
00:20We have found over the years that occasionally someone will tell us that some video we've
00:24made on the healthcare playlist has been of use to them, because anybody who's going to
00:29come here and stay here long term, healthcare is a huge issue of course, so that's why we
00:36make these videos is for those guys.
00:39For those of you who aren't coming, intending to come here and stay here long term, it might
00:44be of some minor interest anyway just because of the Japanese style of doing things.
00:48So every year those of us who pay the health insurance, the government health insurance
00:56premiums every year, which we're all supposed to do, one of the benefits of doing that is
01:03that you get a letter once a year that says, come and have your free health check if you
01:08want to.
01:09So there is a myth out there that it's compulsory.
01:11It's not compulsory.
01:12The letter comes and says if you want to have a free health check, and there's pages and
01:19pages of it as always in Japan, but there's a page there that has a list of all the clinics
01:25that you can choose from, and in our case, it's actually the clinic we go to anyway,
01:30just the local clinic with the local doctor, and he's on the list, which means if we want
01:35to, we can just go down there and have a free health check.
01:39So they usually do your height and your weight and a blood test and just check for your cholesterol
01:47and all the usual things that you get with a physical, and it's all free, 100% free.
01:52And I don't do it every year, but I'll probably do it every second or third year probably.
01:57I don't really have to, because I have to do a pilot medical every year, it doesn't
02:01really apply.
02:02However, this year I thought, because I'm an old man, I thought I might get the cancer
02:07check.
02:08So when the form comes, it says, do you want to have a health check, and yes, please, and
02:12then it says, do you want the optional cancer check?
02:15So they can give you an x-ray for your lungs, check for cancer, and they can give you one
02:20of those things where you drink the thing, and barium I think they call it.
02:24That's what they call it in Japanese, I think it comes from English, I'm not sure what the
02:27English pronunciation, barium, whatever it is, you drink it, and they can check for stomach
02:33cancer as well.
02:34So this year I thought I would, I've never had that check before, so I thought I would,
02:37so I ticked those boxes, and then back came a pack with another 10 pages of information
02:45and forms to fill out, and things to say that they needed some samples and things that
02:51we'll get into later.
02:52So anyway, I thought today while I was sitting there between each step, I'd make a note of
02:59what the experience was like, to give you guys a step-by-step explanation, because for
03:04those of you who might be having it in the future, I've been told by different people
03:09that what they've heard on our video has put their mind at rest a little bit about what
03:13to expect.
03:14So, here it is.
03:15Here's what to expect.
03:16The first note I actually made was, because of those pages and pages of information they
03:20send you, and because the actual experience itself, the actual checks themselves, they
03:25ask a lot of medical questions about your medical history and things like that, and
03:30so it is really difficult, it does require a fair bit of competent English, and if you
03:36don't think you can handle that yourself, then what you need to do is take someone along
03:39that can help you, translate for you or something like that.
03:43So, that's the first note I made, unless your Japanese is really good.
03:47Problem is, medical terminology, you know, a lot of stuff they say, if you haven't heard
03:51it before, you're not expecting it, you won't know what they're talking about.
03:56Same as English, medical terminology, it's difficult, isn't it?
03:59So anyway, yeah, first thing was, 12 pages I wrote here, it was actually 12 pages, the
04:03questionnaire, all the information of your medical history, and the silly thing is they
04:07make you do it every year, even though your history hasn't changed, you might have added
04:11to it, but you've got to do the complete history every year, so anyway, 12 pages of
04:16faffing.
04:17Actually, I really noticed that today, the paperwork we get at home first, and we have
04:21to prepare it, and we have to take it there, and then we walk in the door, and you come
04:25in, and the first thing they do, they've got this thing they set up during COVID, and they've
04:31kept it.
04:32So, you come in the entrance, and you don't get past the entrance, you've got to sit on
04:35a seat, and a nurse comes over and says, fill out another form, so you hand her the 12 pages
04:41you've already completed, and she gives you another form to fill out, right, and takes
04:46your temperature, and, what have I written here, I don't want to miss anything.
04:54So yeah, yeah, check the form, she checks the forms, and then she goes, they've got
04:57a photocopier, and they go and copy some of the forms, and they copy your medical insurance
05:04card and your hospital card, because you've got to have a membership card to hospitals
05:09here, so they copy that, so they do another few copies, paper, you know, the Japanese
05:15government talking about going paperless, like we've said a lot of times before, it's
05:19not going to happen for a long, long time, there's no need for any of that really, it
05:22should all be on their computer, and all you should have to do is give them your hospital
05:27card, and that should be it, it's all on the computer then, but they don't, they don't,
05:31and then they give you a folder that has like four pages on it, and that's for the different
05:38people at the different steps to complete, so with your results, right?
05:43So okay, so yeah, two more forms, oh yeah, and then, I don't want to talk about this,
05:50but I will, had to give two poo samples, right, taken at different times, and so they're in
05:58a fairly discreet little bag you can't see in, so I've handed it to her, and she's
06:03looked at the, I had to write the dates and the times, and she's looked at it, ah, these
06:07poo samples, all in Japanese, right, ah, these poo samples, you've taken them on the
06:12same day, and mm, and I said, I said, yeah, it said in the explanation that you could
06:17take it on two separate days consecutively, or twice in one day if it was far enough apart,
06:24mm, mm, yes, yes, and she's going on about the poo sample, and there was another like
06:29six people sitting within arm's reach of me, right, big discussion about the poos, and
06:36I said to her, it said on the explanation that twice in one day was okay, and she said
06:40yes, yes, so why are we talking about it, anyway, that's what they do, it's just trying
06:46to be thorough, you know, they always got to talk about everything way more than they
06:49need to, just to be thorough, mm, I'm just running out of time, this is a long story,
06:55and I've got to get into it, mm, ah, oh yeah, alcohol for your hands of course, oh finally
07:01you get past that first entrance, past the gatekeeper, and then, oh yes, please wash
07:06your hands with alcohol, yeah, okay, wash your hands with alcohol, oh, and then we go
07:09in, and she takes me over to this big, ah, sort of like shelves, and it's got all the,
07:15you know, the hospital clothes on it, and I'd specifically worn basically this, a t-shirt
07:21and shorts, and just, just, um, just flip flops, you know, because I know they want
07:27access to you, right, and, and so she said, oh, you've got to put this on, and I was like,
07:31I said to her, do I, you know, isn't this okay, no, not okay, so I looked like this,
07:37okay, I did take a video of that, I wanted to take a video of lots of it, but you can't
07:41be taking videos in hospitals very much, so the opportunity, when I got the opportunity
07:45to take a video, I did, so there's a couple of, in this, there'll be a couple of superimposed
07:50videos for you to look at, so that's me in the badly fitting hospital gear, I did manage
07:55to talk into letting me keep my own flip flops, though, because, um, I didn't want
07:59the hospital slippers, you've got to shuffle around in those stupid things like everybody
08:03else does, um, yeah, you've got to be patient when you're going through this system, the
08:08people are kind enough, and, and, and, and helpful enough, you've just got to be really
08:12patient and nice, you know, because it's hard, it's hard not to get frustrated, oh, yeah,
08:16the silly clothes, the mask, got to wear the mask, and I managed to get away with wearing
08:19my own zorry, that was good, with my own, um, flip flops, um, oh, yeah, and then you've
08:25got to sit down, it's this first part is really slow, you know, getting through, past the
08:30gatekeeper, and then come back wearing the silly clothes, and then sit there, and they
08:34shuffle the papers, and they do a few more photocopies, pass it around a little bit,
08:38that, that first part was about 10, 15 minutes, a lot of faffing around, and then finally
08:44a nurse comes along and goes, follow me, and then off we go, and from there on, it pretty
08:48well didn't stop, I had a hard time writing some of this, because I'd sit down, and they'd
08:52call me straight away, because they're really efficient, it's like a production line, it's
08:56like the Toyota, uh, production line, um, so, yeah, wait, watch, copy the papers, that's
09:03right, and a health care card, yep, um, yeah, each step, each time they, they pass you to
09:08the next person, the next person, you hand them the, the, the file, the file that you're
09:12carrying with all the paper in it, that's got your name and date of birth on the front,
09:16and you hand it to them, and they say, what's your name and date of birth, every step, every
09:20step, all day, all day, was what's your name and date of birth, um, um, oh yeah, I had
09:27to go and do a urine sample, right, have a look, have a look in the bathroom, what was
09:33written on the bell, why, why is there a bell, why is there a bell with do not press the
09:41bell written on it, why didn't they just take the bell away, but anyway, anyway, there was
09:44that at your urine sample, um, oh, baskets, every step, where every time you go, like
09:50blood pressure, you sit down, take your blood pressure, and there's a basket there, and
09:54they say, please put your things in the basket, so you put your bag or your, whatever you're
09:58carrying in the basket, and then sit down and do your thing, every step, there's a basket
10:02there on a stand for you to put your things, very thoughtful, it's really efficient, excellently
10:07efficient, and then when they finish, they go, next step, follow me, and you pick up
10:11your stuff, and you follow that nurse to the next station, where they do the next thing,
10:15and it's just like the Toyota production line, A, B, C, D, um, you know, now we'll go to
10:19D, now we'll go to F, um, uh, oh yeah, the manga, the manga in the waiting areas, bookshelves
10:29full of manga for you to sit and read if you're waiting, but probably wouldn't have been enough
10:33time, a lot of the time, I was hard pressed to get enough time to write this stuff, but
10:37probably people that are waiting for results or something might have to wait a bit longer,
10:42they can read manga while they're doing that, oh and then, then it was time to see a, actually
10:46see a doctor, everything was done by nurses and by technicians, and then it was time to
10:50see the doctor, and they took me in, and the doctors here are almost always the same, you
10:55walk in, you sit down, they usually don't look at you, they just look at your, at your
10:59paper, but you're sitting there looking at my paper like this, and he didn't even look
11:02at me, and the nurse says, you know, sit here, so you sit down next to the doctor and he's
11:06looking at the paper and he says, he asked a couple of questions, and he says right,
11:11lift your shirt, lift up the shirt, and listen a little bit, okay, lie on the table, on the
11:15table, they do that thump, thump, thump thing, I reckon between a minute, no, no more than,
11:21not much more than a minute, less than two minutes, I was in there with him, and that's
11:24really normal in Japan, most of the work's done by the nurses and technicians and the
11:28doctors themselves usually only see him briefly, they usually don't look at you, and sometimes
11:34they do, but usually they don't, they just look at the paperwork, they're only interested
11:38in your numbers, they're not necessarily interested in you as a person, so, so yeah, in with him,
11:44out again, don't look at your face, I wrote here, they don't look at your face, the doctors,
11:51oh yeah, and then the nurse, the nurse actually took me in the next room, and showed me, this
11:58is your weight, and you know, this is your weight here, and this is your blood pressure,
12:02my blood pressure's a bit high, and you know, you need to get, you need to get your weight
12:06and your blood pressure down, and it is true, even by Western standards, my blood pressure
12:09is high, so, so, what she said was, and again, here's another myth, the myth is that in Japan
12:16it's illegal to be overweight, it's not illegal, but what she said to me is, would you like
12:21dietary advice, you know, would you like, would you like us to make an appointment with
12:27a dietician to get dietary advice, and I said no, because I know I'm, I know I'm overweight,
12:35but there again, they offer, any time you've got a problem like that, they offer, would
12:40you like to do this, and then with the blood pressure, she said we can do ECGs, and we
12:45can do these other tests as well, to check on the rest of your blood, you know, your
12:50heart and everything else, and I said no, because I'll get that in a couple of months
12:55time, because I've got to go back there in a couple of months to get that pilot medical,
12:58and that includes ECGs and stuff like that, so my point is, anything that they find that's
13:04not cool, they offer you a solution, they offer you some sort of treatment to help you
13:08with it, so, the solution is, less cookies, yeah, lecture from the nurse about the weight,
13:16offered a dietician, and then down to the x-ray area, so I went downstairs, and I haven't
13:20had this, I've had lots of x-rays here in the past when I was hospitalized for a while,
13:25but I haven't had the barium thing, the barium treatment thing, so I went downstairs, had
13:29a chest x-ray, and then those of you who haven't had that barium thing, you've got to drink
13:33this stuff, and then, I don't know if it's the same in other countries, but this bed
13:38moved, so I had to lie on the bed holding the handles, and it sort of turned me all
13:42around, to mix, I'm guessing it's to mix the stuff up inside, and to make it lie on different
13:47sides of my stomach, so I could get x-rays from all different angles, so it's pretty
13:51wild, pretty wild ride, and holding down that liquid is pretty difficult, but it was good,
13:56and again, the nurse will take you, go to this window, and then that person at that
14:02window says, go sit outside F01, and this person says, now go down there to H, and each
14:09step is so efficient, it's so efficient, it's excellent, in fact, all the things I'm talking
14:15about here, it took total time, including that first 15, 20 minutes of faffing around
14:20at the start, the whole thing was one hour and 20 minutes, so absolutely excellent, so
14:25yeah, x-rays, and the barium thing was the last thing, obviously because it leaves you
14:31feeling pretty shitty, you haven't eaten for 12 hours, and then they put that inside you,
14:36so I was feeling pretty crappy at the end, and it was the last step, and then how's this,
14:40went up to the counter, all that that I just said is normally free, you've only got to
14:45pay if you get the cancer checks, and the extra cost of the cancer checks was 2600 yen,
14:51which is about $25, so everything there was $25, and if I hadn't had the cancer checks,
15:00it would have been free, so then I get up to the counter, and they paid my $25, and
15:07she said here's a token for that drink machine over there, there was a vending machine, there's
15:11a token for the drink machine, you can get a drink, because they know you haven't eaten,
15:14and here's a voucher for the bakery on the first floor, and the hotel actually has, this
15:19is a city hospital, right, and the city hospital's a pretty new one, and down on the first floor
15:24they've got a convenience store, which is pretty normal in city hospitals, and a little
15:28like a boutique bakery, so I don't think they bake the stuff there, but it comes from somewhere,
15:33and it's all freshly baked stuff, so there was like a ham and cheese croissant, and there
15:39was all these different tasty things, so here's a free voucher for one of them, so I went
15:44down there and had that, so that was the experience, they're sort of, the bedside manner is different,
15:53I've mentioned this in previous videos about different health care stuff in Japan, they're
15:57very professional, and like with most Japanese people, they're very professional, very polite,
16:03but not super friendly, you know, it's not, you don't get an intimate connection with
16:08any of the health care workers, I remember years ago I went to Australia, took my wife
16:12with me to Australia, and I went and saw my old doctor in Australia, this was a long time
16:16ago, it was about 14 years ago, and I went back for a visit, took the missus with me,
16:21I went and saw the doctor, and sat out in the waiting room, when he came out he came
16:24out, he came out, hey, how are you going, long time no see, how's Japan, and sort of
16:29shook my hand, and took me into his room, and sat there and talked to me for 15 minutes,
16:33and then, you know, whatever, he said, what are you here for, and when we left, we went
16:38back to the car, and my wife said to me, was he your school friend, you know, and I said
16:43no, just my doctor, and she thought, because he was so super friendly, and chatty and stuff,
16:50and the big connection with the shaking hands, and how are you going mate, good to see you,
16:54that he must be a friend, and I said no, that's just the doctor, that's just the GP, that's
16:59the connection we have, so they don't do that here, the doctors here usually don't look
17:03at you, the nurses are a little bit more relaxed and friendly, but not friendly, that's not
17:08the right word, they're just nice, they're nice to you, you know, kind to you, that's
17:12a better word, they're kind, usually, usually they're kind, I had blood taken, I always
17:17have trouble getting blood vessels, I've got two big black marks on my arms at the
17:21moment, they have real trouble getting my blood vessels, and so she's poking in and
17:26out, I had that trouble in the hospital too, and they'd say, oh, gomen ne, gomen ne,
17:31ganbatte kudasai, gaman shite, so they're saying, sorry, sorry, you know, endure it
17:37and take it, or, you know, bang, bang, bang, bang, but quite nice, you know, they're quite
17:42nice, it's a, it's a, it's not a nice experience, it's okay, it's okay, you know, and efficient
17:52as anything, I mean, how's that, the actual examinations and treatments was like one hour
17:57for all of that, it's very efficient, next step, next step, next step, very much like
18:02that Toyota factory, you know, the next step, the next step, the next step, really efficient,
18:07and often, the next step, that nurse is ready, so you finish with this nurse, and that next
18:12nurse is standing there, and says, you know, here you go, what's your name, what's your
18:16date of birth, and then off you go for the next step, so really good, really, really
18:21good, it's a good system, so, yeah, you can be assured, you know, the healthcare system
18:27I come from in Australia was very good, but I think the Japanese system has an edge, you
18:32know, I know my friends and family in Australia have to wait for treatments and things, and
18:37here, every experience, if you look at that healthcare playlist, you know, I've had all
18:42sorts of procedures done here, and usually there's almost no waiting, one day, I was
18:47diagnosed with something serious, reasonably serious, and they had me unconscious and doing
18:54a procedure on me within about an hour, really, really efficient, oh, I better deal with this,
19:00that's not good, and so they're really good, they are really good, so look, anybody that's
19:06thinking about coming here, I've had some people that are, old folks like me, that want
19:10to come and spend long term here, and healthcare is a huge worry for them, you know, it is
19:15tricky, you do need help with the Japanese, if, you know, unless your Japanese is pretty
19:21good, you know, quite often today, I was like, ah, what is it, and you've got to be pretty
19:26on the ball to try and catch on to what they're talking about, you know, because often it's
19:30medical terminology, you know, it's like, oh, what's that, and if you're lucky, they'll
19:35explain it in a simpler way, oh, yeah, okay, I gotcha, I gotcha, or you'll be able to see
19:39from the situation what they're talking about, you know, they're telling you to lie on a
19:42table, they've got an ECG machine over there, and all the diodes and stuff, you go, alright,
19:46I don't know what you're going to do here, you know, the instructions were pretty funny
19:50with that stomach x-ray thing, the instructions there were pretty hard to follow, he was trying
19:56to get me to do all sorts of positions, and I was like, you want me to do what, oh, okay,
20:00I gotcha, so anyway, yeah, look, it's good, guys, it's good, you know, I hear about the
20:07healthcare systems in other countries, and, you know, I think we're lucky here, we really
20:11are, it costs a fair bit for the family, the healthcare insurance premium for this year
20:18was about five and a half thousand dollars for the family, for the four of us, so it
20:24is a little bit expensive, but I had five weeks of hospitalization a few years ago that,
20:29you know, would have been worth, who knows, 50 grand, 80 grand, you know, who knows what
20:35that would have been worth if I had to pay for it, it cost me 500 dollars, so it's a
20:40good system, it's a really good system, if you work out here what your cost of living
20:44is, and then, you know, your income, and you look at your, how much tax you pay, and
20:50your health insurance, and everything else, you know, in Australia, you don't have to
20:54do that, pay the health insurance separately, it's included in the tax, but when you do
20:58all the math, it still works out okay, you know, compared to a lot of other countries,
21:02so it's a good system, it's efficient, they do a good job, I haven't had any bad experiences
21:07in the hospitals here, really, couple of minor ones, just sometimes arrogant doctor or something,
21:12but overall, excellent, really is good, so anyway, that's about time, sun's setting,
21:1938 degrees it was today, it was hot, nice now though, isn't it, anyway, that's enough
21:27of that, more videos, coming soon!