Job Discussion Forums

Yes Sir I Can Bogey · Joined: 23 Mar 2009 Posts: 201

Katja, voi, voi, voi.... Which is more valuable to you, a poxy three-hundred-odd quid or decent blood running through your veins? Do you really want someone in China sticking a needle that has been God only knows where into you? Have you not read the horror stories in even the Chinese press about people taking used needles straight from rubbish bins, re-packaging them, and then selling them right back to the clinic that threw them away in the first place?

Katja84 · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 165

Sinobear · Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: Purgatory

Katja: if you're worried about the x-ray, you shouldn't be. When I did my first medical in Beijing, I stood in front of the x-ray, the tech moved the platten up and down and that was it...there was no x-ray.
In GZ, at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital, they use all foreign-made equipment.
The medical is for your FRP, not the Z and in some schools (like mine) you do your medical as a condition of your visa's first extension.

Cheers!

Yes Sir I Can Bogey · Joined: 23 Mar 2009 Posts: 201

I always thought it was dangerous to have any metallic objects on the person when undergoing an X-ray. Nevertheless, once at a clinic in China I saw a whole row of X-ray pics hanging up with what were clearly recognisable outlines of keys and mobile phones hanging from the waists of the silhouettes.

suanlatudousi · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Posts: 384

suanlatudousi · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Posts: 384

evaforsure · Joined: 26 Jun 2004 Posts: 1217

foreignDevil · Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 580

jdrifter · Joined: 03 Apr 2008 Posts: 7

I was in the same situation as you last year. I was not about to pay hundreds of dollars for a physical in the US when I knew I would have to take another one again in China. I ended up getting a very basic physical, pulse, blood pressure, weight, and my doctor's stamp. I paid $15. In the boxes for the expensive tests, like x-ray and blood work, my doctor wrote "deferred"(in illegible doctor handwriting). It was accepted with no problems. I'm not guaranteeing that the same thing would work every time, but as someone else stated earlier, a clerk in some office just wants to check off a box on some form.

Good luck. I know I would never pay almost a months wages to satisfy the bureaucracy.

Katja84 · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 165

Hansen · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Posts: 737 Location: central China

More than 5 years here, no physical done anywhere other than China, that I recall. Here's what I would do:

If the visa office in your home country requires a physical, go to a nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant and get a very basic physical including VS, H+W, eye test, hearing, and medical history. Have him/her look you over for melanoma, check your reflexes, whatever. There are usually clinics around where you can get free HIV tests, if they require one.

Submit that to the visa office. If they refuse it, then it looks like you have no other choice but to spend money. If your finances are that tight, you should think about the wisdom of putting yourself in a situation where emergency money is essential.

There is a special clinic in this large city where the foreigners must get a checkup. They now issue a booklet, similar to a passport booklet, which is good for a longer period of time than the piece of paper.

I understand your concern about needle sticks in China. It's hard for me to believe, based on what I have observed here, that someone, somewhere isn't working a scam on this one. That the Chinese would let all the potential money to be made from reusing needles slip by is inconceivable to me. Perhaps that is one advantage to using the designated immigration clinic. It may be policed more closely for exactly that reason.

Yes Sir I Can Bogey · Joined: 23 Mar 2009 Posts: 201

Yes Sir I Can Bogey · Joined: 23 Mar 2009 Posts: 201

http://www.vaccinationnews.com/dailynews/August2001/DocsDirtyNeedlesSpreadHepChina.htm

From: 'Doctors' Dirty Needles Spread Hepatitis in China':

"...Chinese researchers found that 88 percent of injections in a large rural county were unsafe, most often because doctors reused needles and syringes after inadequate or no cleaning."

"The Health Ministry has encouraged clinics to switch to disposable needles and syringes, but even those are sometimes reused, or cleaned and repackaged in a large underground market, according to medical experts here and reports in the Chinese press."

"In the last year, Chinese newspapers have covered several police raids on small backyard factories that were illegally cleaning and repackaging disposable syringes. One such workshop in Zhejiang Province held more than 14 tons of used single-use medical equipment, including more than four tons of needles, The Legal Daily reported."