bringing children to vietnam
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Hello,
My wife and I are thinking of relocating back (she's originally from there) to Vietnam. I've been several times, so in general I know what i'm getting into. However, what i'm unsure of is whether I can feel confident that my children (who are quite young) will have access to high quality health care. I'm looking for any information from folks who have had small children with them in the HCMC area and how they dealt with this question.
I have lots of other things to figure out about this, so any advice on the whole move is quite welcome.
thanks!
noah
No problem Noah, healthcare is good here with plenty of private hospitals such as Family Medical and FV Hospital. Even the local hospitals are way better than you would expect. I have a 2-yr old and on the rare occasions she's been sick the treatment has been excellent.
Thanks for the response, that is very reassuring.
My wife was pregnant when we were back in February and I went with her to a very large and busy womens clinic in saigon and the place seemed very impersonal and not particularly modern, for an ultrasound. It was a little disappointing compared to the experience of a private room and an ultrasound tech showing us our baby, she seemed to get herded in a line and I had to wait outside. She said the tech just told her the baby was so many weeks and that was it, no further information or any questions. But that's a public clinic, I guess, and she paid something like $10 for it. So perhaps you get what you pay for.
We also had our son there and took him to some childrens clinic in saigon that had been recommended when he had a fever, I felt the dr and the place were ok, but not great. We had heard there are some better places but hadn't really figured out where they were.
I've seen mention of FV in a couple of places now, and I see that my insurance seems to cover it. Sounds like that may be my best bet.
One thing I want to do is keep them up on something close to the immunization schedule they would have back here in the US, and I suppose any extra that make sense over there. Is this something I should expect to be able to do easily somewhere such as FV?
thanks
Hi Noah
I agree with Tim that the medical coverage for most everyday child hood illnesses and accidents is completely fine. There are at least half a dozen international standard clinics these days - Family Medical, SOS International, FV Hospital, Columbia Asia, and a couple of French ones as well.
Most medical insurance companies will cover visits to these once the premium/non deductible bit is paid, else without it a visit is likely to set you back a minimum of about $65-95 with the exception of the French services that are a bit cheaper and more 'every man' price.
Some specialist doctors and services are not available here, so if you have a child with a chronic medical condition that might need specialist treatment you may want to check into it further. The French immuisation schedule that I started my daughter on at the FV Hospital (she was born there nearly 3 years ago) is somewhat different to the one that is followed by the Family Medical Clinic in town, but apart from 1-2 shots, it was much the same as what I would expect in Australia. A couple of the infant shots that are recommended are not available here, so I know some people at the 2-3 month mark went to Bangkok or Singapore to get that shot - by the time I found out about it, Baillee was too old to have it anyway.
There are half a dozen very good paediatricians at the Family Medical, which seems to be the preferred clinic for little kids whose parents have insurance, and they have also just employed a mid wife who will run pre-natal and post-natal classes on birthing and breast feeding etc, and they also now have the OB GYN that was at FV Hospital on staff at Family Medical as well.
Besides their websites, if you want to seek other opinion, can I suggest you hop into facebook and find "Vietnam Parents Network" - it is a group I started after Baillee was born and we now have about 300 families in it - discussion boards there cover stuff like doctors, nannies, shopping, activities etc that may be of use, and of course you can post your own questions and see other people's ones as well. Also there is a google group called "An Phu Neighbours" that covers the District 2 and other expat parts of town with all kinds of things from where to find a doctor to selling the furniture, finding staff, local activities, etc etc.
Regards
Allyson
Great, actually this is looking workable.
I had another question on general logistics, can't seem to find an appropriate place for this thread here so i'm just going to continue this thread with this other topic -
Money. That is, getting at your money when you're in vietnam. I typically bring what I need with me when I visit, but that won't work when i'm there long term. I'm planning to continue working for the same employer I have here, just doing the work remotely from there, since I can telecommute. Can I just open a bank account there and setup my regular direct deposit into it from here (the us), without the 3% fee?
Any ideas on how that could work?
thanks again!
noah
Hi Noah
Not my area of expertise at all, so can't really help you with the money question. Suggest you perhaps talk to one of the international banks like HSBC or Citibank etc that operate in the USA and here and see if they can deposit to your local account in Vietnam. As an international transfer it would probably attract about $20 in fees at each end. Accessing an overseas account is possible via ATMs but your money is paid out in VND. Depends on the bank but my Aussie bank charges 20,000 VND per transaction, which is just over $1USD. Provided you have a card that has the usual "Maestro" "Cirrus" or "Visa" logos etc on it, then you can find an ATM here that will talk to your foreign bank.
Most companies here insist you have a local bank account for salary to be paid into as a local employee since it is easier for them and I think the tax department wants to know where your money is coming and going from. Without one it makes it difficult to send large amounts of cash offshore.
Hope this is in some way helpful.
Hi Noah
If some topic does not fit into any of the categories the best place to ask is The Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi Pubs
http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/vietnam/-ho-chi-minh-and-hanoi-...
Thanks To Allyson and Tim for helping out.