HEALTH CARE
With Suzhou's foreign community continuing to grow and consequently, the growing number of foreign children living in Suzhou, the number of facilities offering medical services to foreigners has grown dramatically since 2000, and the overall quality of health care continues to improve rapidly. The International hospitals such as Kowloon Hospital employ foreigners and foreign-trained health professionals. All doctors in this international hospital can speak English and healthcare is equivalent to what you could expect in any major city.
- Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine, once considered by the Western medical world as bordering on superstition, has been gaining wide acceptance in recent years. Many of its benefits, especially those of acupuncture, are now being recognized. Since the focus is preventive, you don’t have to be ill to take advantage of the vast pool of traditional Chinese medicine services available. From herbal doctors who can prescribe natural home brews to help with relaxation and detoxification, to acupuncturists who can cure back and other debilitating pains –all are available. And as treatments are largely natural and non-invasive, there is less danger in mistreatments, such as drinking the wrong herbal brew, for instance, will have less serious consequences than having surgery on the wrong organ.
However, it is always a good idea to check with your doctor whenever taking any alternative remedies, Blood pressure, for example, may be affected because some herbal brews are known for making the blood “stronger.” Be aware too that herb quality and purity vary so your neighbor’s uncle’s herbal connection, while cheaper, may not be as good as those from the Chinese Medicine Hospital.
If Traditional Chinese Medicine seems so alien to the Western world it is because it embodies a completely different frame of reference and approach to health and disease. For example, if one has a medical complaint, a Western doctor will start with the symptom and then search for the cause. The Western doctor narrows down the potential causes until he isolates the final agent, which is then controlled or destroyed, The same symptoms, to a traditional Chinese medical doctor, are but one characteristic of the patient’s entire physiological and psychological state.
Culled from thousands of years of observation of both humans and nature, the Chinese medical system is based on the belief that the very fabric of existence is made up of opposing forces-the yin and yang. Where there is light, there is dark; if there is cold, there is heat, and so on. Within this system of thinking, nothing can be isolated: all things are interconnected and affect each other.
The Chinese Medicine doctor will try to find the relationship between the symptom and the patient, identifying the “pattern of disharmony.” Treatment in the Western sense is intervention based and immediate; in the Chinese sense, it is restorative and requires time for rebalancing. In Western thinking, one looks for the causes of the effect, in Chinese thinking one looks for the relationship between the two.
To be healthy is to have harmony of all these factors in the totality of the person. To be ill is to experience the disharmony of such forces; Health is achieved by restoring balance. This observation goes beyond the physical well being of the individual. It also includes the person’s environment and their emotional state.
Acupuncture
This one practive of traditional Chinese medicine has received the most attention in the West. Acupuncture is based on the understanding of meridians invisible pathways that are also called ”energy centers” or “channels.” These are the paths by which the body’s fundamental substances are circulated, nourishing and maintaining the health of the person. An imbalance or disrupted flow through these pathways will result in some discomfort or illness in the body. This net work connects the external to the internal. Affecting certain points on the surface of the body will then affect the interior.
It follows that blockage or imbalance of any of the body’s functions can be relieved or rebalanced through acting on points on the body’s surface. In acupuncture, thin needles are inserted just deep enough to pierce the skin and manipulated at more than 360 points. (Be sure that disposable needles are used.) State–of–the–art techniques involve sending an electrical current through the needles. Theses days, lasers are also used.
In China, one important use of acupuncture is in surgical analgesia, Chinese surgeons use it widely, relieving the need to use an anesthetic, which leaves the patient, disoriented and sometimes interferes with the recovery process. Chinese doctors also use it to treat heart disease, ulcers, high blood pressure, appendicitis, and asthma, and many other illnesses. In 1980, the World Health Organization released a list of 43 types of illnesses that can be effectively treated with acupuncture. In 1998 a National Institute of Health panel reported that acupuncture could relief nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy and surgical anesthesia.
Working along the same concept but using pressure instead of needless, acupressure, results in a similar pain-alleviating effect. Since this is done with the fingertips, elbows, or sometimes knees, many people think of it as a massage. Trained practitioners give these in a hospital or clinic. This should not be confused with local massage centers where non-medically trained staff has the appearance of acupressure massage just by exerting an inordinate amount of force.
Herbal Medicine
Doctors prescribe herbs for a similar reaction. Each herb or mixture of their properties is infused into the meridian pathways, creating the same rebalancing effect. These herbal concoctions are not known for their flavor but rather for both the long brewing process and the need to keep taking them over a long period of time.
International Hospitals
More and more international hospitals opening in shanghai since 1990’s. These hospitals provide various kinds of professional medical health care such as Dentistry, Gynecology and Pediatric services particularly focus on family medicine services, Hence, covering the needs of all ages and genders. They are facilitated with other international centers both within China and across the world, and their team of staff also reflects this. To ensure such standards, almost all of the employees have had English training and earned experience in international hospitals or similar medical institutions. The hospital provides 24 hour consultation services for both Chinese and English speaking patients.
Here is a list of the local hospitals and clinics that offer healthcare services to foreigners.
| Name | Telephone | Website | Address |
| The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University 苏州大学附属第一医院 | 6522 3637 | 296 Shizi Road 十梓街296号 |
|
Merry Dental 美瑞牙科 |
6262 9999 |
118 Wansheng Street |
|
| Bioscor Shanghai Clinic 保加医疗美容门诊部 |
Tel: 6257 8860 | 5F,No200 Xinghai Road |
|
| The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University 苏州大学附属第二医院 | 6828 2030 | 1055 Sanxiang Rd 三香路1055号 | |
| Suzhou Oral Cavity Clinic 苏州口腔诊所 | 6727 5765 | 513 Renmin Road 人民路513号 | |
| Suzhou Shengai Hospital 苏州圣爱医院 部 | 6808 0101 | 36,Jinshan Road 金山路36号 | |
| Suzhou Hospital苏州市立医院 | 6522 3693 | 26 Daoqian Street 道前街26号 | |
| Sing Health Medical Clinic 新宁诊所 | 6767 1655 | 1st floor,#128 Jinjihu Road,SIP 园区金鸡湖路东128号 |
|
| Tokushinkai Dental 德真会齿科 | 6763 5720 | 1F.No.88 Jin Jihu Road 苏州园区金鸡湖路88号苏信大厦1F |
|
| Xinyike Suzhou Menzhenbu 新医科苏州门诊部 | 6522 0101 |
695 East Ganjiang Road 干将东路695号 |
