A MEDICAL ELECTIVE IN TOKYO, HEATHER SHEPPARD

A local lady, our speaker Heather Sheppard attended Currie High School before gaining a chemistry qualification at Heriot Watt. She is now nearing the end of her medical studies from St Andrews and Dundee universities. As part of these studies, she spent a year attached to St Luke's International Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Japan, with all single rooms with en suite much like a hotel. Heather specialised in dermatology and anaesthetics. As an aside she told us that the hospital is in Tokyo's Ginza district, the location of the Olympics in 2020.

Japan's health system is based on insurance and government regulated fees - patients end up paying between 10% and 30% of the cost of treatment. There are no GPs so first contact is with a specialist of choice.

The hospital includes a centre for disease prevention which Heather suggested 'creates the worried well'! Patients themselves choose what tests to have and, if a problem is detected, they them have to start again with another test by their chosen specialist. This contrasts strongly with the hospital's outreach clinic for the homeless in the city.

Heather was strongly involved in treatments and processes in both of her selected areas of interest but found some problems communicating with patients who didn't understand English. This resulted in some amusing experiences but producing her stethoscope from her handbag could solve the problem. However many of the doctors had trained in the UK or USA so, with them, language was not a problem.

Heather concluded her talk with images of Tokyo - her time there gave her a wealth of experience and she thanked the Club members for their support before answering questions.

The Club's vote of thanks was given by Ken Lindsay.