No 42- If you could get medical care anywhere in the world, where would you go?
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
This has been my reading list for the last week.
Reading Paul Kalanithi’s work made me think about what it is like to strive to be one of the best and most respected doctors in the world, and how elusive that goal can be.
For a recap, please have a read of this:
The other two books are very different! They are focussed on uncovering corruption and how vast amounts of wealth are hidden in tax havens around the world.
What is the connection between these two topics I hear you ask?
Well, Moneyland contains lots of details about not just corrupt people but “Ultra-High Net-Worth” (UHNW) individuals, basically the super rich. And being a doctor interested in the bigger picture, I immediately thought, if I was one of these UHNW who could spend millions of dollars on my health then where would I go and what would I do?
I have previously, thought and written quite a bit on “global healthcare” and how it is so different around the world:
As a lowly junior doctor in the UK NHS, it is a nice day dream to be able to think about “unlimited medicine” about being able to provide not just “gold standard care” but “the best care in the world”.
In the UK we have health rationing. In theory, everyone has access to the same standard of healthcare and because of the training, regulation and NICE then everyone should get a high standard of care.
NICE only allows doctors in the UK to offer a treatment on the NHS if it has passed quite strict cost-effectiveness assesssment. Essentially, it has to be proven to be an effective treatment and better than any similar alternatives. Personally, I think this is a wonderful idea.
However, we all know that in practice there are long waits to see any clinicians, long waits for tests, long waits for scans, long waits for reviews and long waits for operations. We also know that some medications are limited in who can have access to them.
I just sat here and thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to work in a system where a patient could walk in and have almost any test or treatment immediately. Wouldnt that be a cool place to work.
But I have never been able to work in a place that can offer this level of service. So, I was wondering if anyone knows where this can be done?
If you work in the top hospital in the USA can this be done? Or do you need to go to private hospitals in Monaco, or UAE or Taiwan or somewhere completely random like Croatia?
Basically, what I would love to know is where do these UHNW individuals go for their healthcare? And do these places do fellowships? Because I would love to visit and experience how this works.
If you have any suggestions then please do leave them in the comments!