Year: 2002Setting: Gleneagles Hospital, Singapore Position: Private general practitionerI am the first and only non-Anglo-Saxon, foreign, private general practitioner in the city-state and the physician of reference for 14 embassies, consulates and a high commission from Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. One afternoon, a nurse comes into my consulting room saying that an ambassador from a European country has had an accident and that he insists on being seen immediately.I ...
Yann Meunier, MD
Frustration when a government does not provide the necessary health care
Year: 1988Setting: Electricite de France clinic at Daya Bay, China Position: Resident physicianA Japanese encephalitis epidemic has struck southern China and I am in its midst at Daya Bay where Electricite de France is building a nuclear plant for the Chinese government. As the resident physician for the company, I see the local employees and their families. They all get immunized against the disease with the inactivated virus Biken vaccine, ...
Maintaining private space when patients share trying times with you
Year: 1987Setting: Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, France Position: Specialist in tropical diseasesI am a consultant in tropical diseases at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris in professor Marc Gentilini’s department, which has been receiving HIV/AIDS patients from all parts of the world since the onset of the pandemic.Indeed, in the early days most patients came from Haiti and Africa and were seen primarily in tropical disease ...
People often injure themselves in new surroundings
Year: 1986Place: Lome, Togo Position: Consultant in tropical diseases, Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in ParisI have been sent to West Africa by a French multinational drug company to share information from recent clinical trials about a new anti-emetic compound.It is late November and I am in Togo, midway through a tour that includes Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Gabon and Congo. The day I land in Lome, I take a much-needed break by hitting ...
Waste at hospitals in developing countries
Year: 1993Setting: Mendi Hospital, Southern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea Position: Chief medical officer for ChevronChevron is contributing to the budget of Mendi Hospital in the capital city of the Southern Highlands province. Each year, the hospital director sends a financial request to the company’s medical department, and this is my first time to review and approve it. Curious about how the money will be used, I phone the director to ...
Acute gonorrhea in Congo
Year: 1984Setting: Ouesso, Congo Position: Timber consortium medical expertWe landed in Brazzaville and took a private jet to Pointe Noire where we spent the night. The next day, the group is assigned six 4x4 Toyotas to take through the Mayombe Mountains, Brazzaville and the plateau to reach Ouesso near the Cameroon border.The journey is eventful, particularly when I drove the pickup truck into a river from a bridge to avoid children ...
How developing countries use foreign health aid matters
Year: 1994Setting: Port Moresby General Hospital, Papua New Guinea Position: Chief medical officer for Chevron Oil Co.The wife of an expatriate employee has injured her arm and, suspecting that she has fractured her left elbow, I accompany her to the Port Moresby hospital for further evaluation. The building looks good and new. In fact, it was recently donated to Papua New Guinea by the Japanese government.While waiting for the X-rays, I ...
How training to become a doctor in France differs from the United States
Among the many differences between the U.S. and the French health-care systems is the approach to medical training. While U.S. medical school graduates in 2008 had an average debt of $154,000, French medical students receive their training virtually for free. For example, first-year medical students at the Faculte de Medecine Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris have only one mandatory cost for this year: an enrollment fee of $264.The amount ...
