I agree. Grace Medical Services is the best place to get a good medical opinion.

If it is something you can plan in advance, I’d look at Bangkok.

I would rather avoid surgery here altogether.

Between AirAsia and AirBnB, the travel costs to Bangkok are not that expensive.

But, if you insist on getting it done in Kunming, the only option is Grace.

I will only go to the public hospitals, if I have something simple like food poisoning or the flu and need a medical note for paid sick leave.

That's a rather categorical point of view. I recently had an operation at Yunnan First People's Hospital and it all went very well. I had originally planned to go home or perhaps to Thailand but it became quite urgent. Anyway, in the end I was very impressed by the doctors and the rest of the staff. I know several other foreigners who have had similar or more serious operations at hospitals here with no problem.

And my wife went to Yunnan Medical University three times for lingering complications with stubborn pneumonia.

On three different occasions she had a different doctor diagnose a large black spot on the chest X-Ray as either fluid or scar tissue in her lungs.

She went back to the U.S., saw her GP, who said that the spot was a gastric bubble in her stomach, completely benign and normal.

The medical care at the public hospitals is substandard.

I went to the same Yunnan Medical University No. 2 (I forgot to include No. 2), with a minor stomach issue.

I needed a note for work.

They tried to steal my appendix.

That is not an exaggeration.

I walked into the doctors office, told the doctor I had pretty nasty pain in the right side of my stomach, and the doctor immediately called the OR, and within a minute there was a gurney waiting to take me to the OR.

No exams were done, nothing.

The doctor just heard pain in lower right side of stomach, straight to surgery.

I said, I don’t think it is my appendix.

The doctor replied he thought it was.

I said, the pain didn’t seem serious enough, he said they should take it out to just be safe.

I asked for more tests before surgery.

They performed an ultrasound, that showed my appendix was fine.

If I didn’t stand up for myself, I would have had an unnecessary surgery that would have been very expensive and knocked me out of work for at least a week, if not longer.

Altogether, that could have cost me 30-40K, hospital bills and unpaid time off.

I use to tutor a doctor who worked in a local public hospital.

He said the hospitals are underfunded, and are forced to fill the gaps by selling unnecessary treatments.

I imagine that is part of the reason they were so quick to want to cut me open.

Sorry to hear of your bad experiences. They carried out dozens of tests on me before doing the operation. I personally know at least five cases, including my own, where foreigners have had successful operations done in public hospitals in Kunming.

stay out of small local hospitals to keep your apendix. kunming #1 and yunnan #1 are big and have solid rep

It was not a small hospital, it is Yunnan #2, that giant monstrosity of a hospital on Dianmian Dadao near the railroad tracks.

I went there, because I just needed a sick leave note (I only get paid, if I have a doctor’s note).

My experience at Yunnan #1, wasn’t amazing either.

4 hour wait, number 46th in line, to see one of two doctors in that department.

When doctor’s are seeing that many patients in a day, they are not providing quality care.

"4 hour wait, #46th in line.."

I'd argue that's quality care. The longer the wait, the more meticulous doctors are with their patients.

Docs w/ high patient demands are usually reserved for specialized head physicians (主任) of a department. Sought after chiefs could amass well over 100 per afternoon.

Little wait time = rushed, or inexperienced doctors with low rep. few want to see.

Why would you go to a hospital for a sick note?