The best hospital for respiratory diseases

There is no "best hospital for respiratory diseases" that is absolutely suitable for all patients in China. Currently, the top hospitals recognized as being in the first echelon are the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Medicine), Peking Union Medical College Hospital, and China-Japan Friendship Hospital. Which one you choose depends entirely on your condition, location, and medical needs. There is no saying that one overwhelms the other.

When we talk privately in the industry, we often say, "For severe respiratory problems, go to Guangzhou Medical University, for pneumoconiosis transplantation, go to China and Japan, and for difficult and complicated cases, go to Union Medical College." Although this is a half-joking summary, it basically summarizes the core advantages of the three companies. The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University is backed by the Guangzhou Respiratory Health Research Institute led by Academician Zhong Nanshan. The case library accumulated over the years is terrifyingly thick, such as refractory asthma, acute exacerbation of COPD, rare lymphangioleiomyomatosis, severe pulmonary infection, etc. Their His clinical experience ranks among the best in the world. Last year, I had an old man in my hometown with COPD and carbon dioxide retention. The local hospital said he needed to be put on ECMO, so his family gritted their teeth and transferred him to the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. After ten days of stay, he was withdrawn from the machine. Now he can walk downstairs by himself at home.

If you are involved in lung transplantation, occupational lung disease, or if your child has an undiagnosed respiratory disease, many doctors will first recommend China-Japan friendship. Their respiratory department is one of the first batch of key clinical specialties in the country. The five-year survival rate of lung transplantation is 3 percentage points higher than the international average. I have met a worker with pneumoconiosis in Hebei Province before. It has been almost three years since he had a transplant there. Now he takes care of the two acres of vegetable land at home. Oh, by the way, their smoking cessation clinic is also the earliest and most systematic in China. Friends who have tried to quit smoking several times without success can definitely give it a try.

If your disease has not been diagnosed for two or three years, and you also have underlying diseases such as rheumatism and immunity, you will most likely not be able to avoid Union Medical College. After all, the trump card of Union Medical College is general-practice collaboration. For example, if you have lupus erythematosus and interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, which is a complex disease involving multiple systems, they can easily bring in experts from the four departments of respiratory, immunology, imaging, and pathology to come up with a plan together. There will never be a situation where the respiratory department only cares about the lungs and ignores the basic diseases.

Of course, not everyone agrees with this statement. I know many primary respiratory doctors who believe that ordinary people do not need to stick to top hospitals. Believe it or not, I have had such a negative example: I once had a colleague with a fever of 39 degrees Celsius. He had to call the respiratory department of Union Medical College. He had to wait in line for three hours to see the doctor. The oseltamivir he prescribed was exactly the same as the one from the community hospital downstairs. Instead, he was cross-infected with bronchitis in the crowded outpatient department and had to cough for less than half a month. Common colds, flu, mild pneumonia, routine COPD follow-up, etc. can really be solved by a Class A or even community hospital near your home. There is no need to waste time trying to get a number from a top hospital.

Oh, by the way, there is another trivia that many people don’t know. If friends in East China find lung nodules and need interventional surgery, or have problems related to lung tumors, they can give priority to the respiratory department of Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University. Their interventional respiratory medicine is particularly strong, so there is no need to go all the way north.

To be honest, many people are desperately looking for the "best hospital for respiratory diseases". Essentially, they want to find the place that can best solve their problems. If you are suspected of having a rare or serious disease at the beginning, going directly to a top hospital will save you a lot of detours; if the diagnosis is just routine medication, it will be more convenient to find a regular follow-up doctor in the local top tertiary hospitals. Now most top hospitals have opened remote consultations. If you are not sure about the plan, you can just ask the local doctor to help contact you. You don’t have to carry the disease for thousands of kilometers. Many patients with respiratory diseases worsen their condition by traveling on the road.

To put it bluntly, the hospital that can accurately solve your needs is the best for you. There is no need to focus on various rankings. After all, when it comes to medical treatment, appropriateness is always much more important than "ranking first".