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| Four pills four times a day for four days. |
There are few places where one can walk into a clinic with no appointment, see a Dr (often a specialist), be accompanied to the on site pharmacy and plied with a pile of individually packaged drugs, all in under an hour and for less than NZ$20.
Dental care is also very very cheap. My friend recently got a wisdom tooth removed for the grand total of NZ$10. I plan taking full advantage of this. The other fabulous thing is that Oriental Medicine is not considered 'alternative' and therefore is subsidised in the same way as conventional medicine. For the past few months I have been having weekly acupuncture and cupping sessions. Dr Park is awesome and often sends me home with packs of herbal tea, which he brews himself, and pearls of wisdom such as 'JiNi, you have humidity in your bones, this is why you have pain'. I knew all those years of living in damp old Aro Valley would get me in the end! Humidity or no humidity my weekly appointments are doing me a world of good. I'm sleeping better, my back pain and stomach cramps are less frequent and my joints don't ache. There's something to be said for a form of healing that has been around for thousands of years.
As fantastic and as easy as the SoKo health system is, it has created a very easy attitude to health. Coming from NZ, where you only go to the doctor if you are 'really sick' and where the concern about building resistance to antibiotics is high on your GP's agenda. I have never met any other group of people who are so prescription and hospital happy as the South Koreans. My Korean co-workers and friends are constantly popping off to the hospital (handily located next door) for any minor aches and pains or coughs and sniffles.
The prescriptions are comprehensive, to say the least, and come conveniently packaged in little dose packs. I have never taken so many pills, in such as short space of time. A few months ago, I got what a thought was 'a bad cold', I was prescribed a total of 64 tablets over a four day period. I was never told and still have no idea what they were,.Patient information isn't really a primary concern. Doctors will generally take your vitals, ask a few questions, form a diagnoses and treat with little consultation. They're also not hesitant to admit you or send you off to surgery if they decide it necessary. Painkillers via IV drip and injections in the bum are also surprisingly popular.
By comparison, with its forever growing waiting lists and the extreme cost of specialist care, New Zealand seems almost third world.
