It's now been 7 weeks since I returned from Ho Chi Minh City to Oxford. From hordes of motorcycles to hordes of students. From scorching dry heat to damp cool.
It's been easy to return to normality, to taking clean wards and air-conditioning for granted. The green restraints which tied most patients to their bed frame have disappeared, replaced by a large, robotic arm which emerges from the wall, carrying an all-in-one television, phone and computer to the patient's side. Lunch is handed out three times a day, not by patients' relatives but by Carillion staff in blue t-shirts. Curtains are drawn around the bed during conversations and examinations, instead of being rolled up and out of the way. The emaciated have been replaced by the morbidly obese.
I hope the posts in this blog have been interesting, to both the medics and especially non-medics out there. If you're a medical student thinking ahead to your elective, I hope this will encourage you to travel to somewhere very different to what you're used to and see things you may never see again. Vietnam has certainly been an amazing experience for me, from both a human and a medical perspective. I hope you will also have the opportunity to visit this beautiful country one day.
It's been easy to return to normality, to taking clean wards and air-conditioning for granted. The green restraints which tied most patients to their bed frame have disappeared, replaced by a large, robotic arm which emerges from the wall, carrying an all-in-one television, phone and computer to the patient's side. Lunch is handed out three times a day, not by patients' relatives but by Carillion staff in blue t-shirts. Curtains are drawn around the bed during conversations and examinations, instead of being rolled up and out of the way. The emaciated have been replaced by the morbidly obese.
I hope the posts in this blog have been interesting, to both the medics and especially non-medics out there. If you're a medical student thinking ahead to your elective, I hope this will encourage you to travel to somewhere very different to what you're used to and see things you may never see again. Vietnam has certainly been an amazing experience for me, from both a human and a medical perspective. I hope you will also have the opportunity to visit this beautiful country one day.
Loved the blog Richard, thanks so much for taking the time to write it and for transporting me so successfully back to the joys of Asia during my otherwise dull days of corporate joy ;) xx
ReplyDeleteHi Richard,
ReplyDeleteI am an Australian final year Medical Student from the University of Queensland looking at doing my elective in Vietnam. I was wondering if you could provide me with any contact information that you used to organise your elective.
I know this may seem a little unorthodox but you blog came up whislt I was googling hospitals in Vietnam.
My email address is annette.s.swift@gmail.com. Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Annette
Hi Richard,
ReplyDeleteI too am taking the unorthodox approach! I am a medical student arranging my elective for 2014 and was delighted to find and read your blog. I have been very keen on visiting the Tropical Medical Centre thanks to Prof. David Warrell's advice, and have been in touch with them via e-mail.
I was hoping to ask you a few more questions about your time there - would that be okay? Please contact me on joannafarnan@gmail.com
Thank you,
Jo
Hi,
ReplyDeleteIts indeed an experience you will not forget.Thanks for sharing. I have been trying to arrange medical elective in Vietnam too, I wrote to some hospitals but no reply for weeks now and the message returned back to me stating that the email address on the site its not correct.
Please can you provide me with the contacts you used. I know it has been long but try to see if its possible as I will be grateful. Please write to me at ryanu@mail.ua if you
Thanks.