I've visited about ten public hospitals here and the facilities are usually very rudimentary. This was before COVID19. Gradually some may have been improved, I know that Calmette (French aided) and Preah Kossomak (Chinese aided) are getting huge extensions but in general most are not great. They are overwhelmed now with patients on an already stretched system. If Khmer Soviet Hospital has all its beds full and another 50 people waiting what are they supposed to do? Accept the patient then leave them in an 8 hour queue? What has also been happening is that people are bringing patients with trauma to small clinics where the staff are not capable of dealing with EMT stuff. Either way it sucks to be refused medical treatment but it's often because the facility isn't capable due to work-loads, lack of staff, lack of equipment and resources etc.

Don't doctors take some sort of oath to protect and preserve life wherever possible, or something along along those lines...?

I guess if you bought your qualifications from a friend in the know, this doesn't strictly apply.

Of the few times I have had to visit a doctor here in PP, (nothing too serious so far thankfully) I have always had the impression that the doctor expects me to know more about my condition than they do.

True story - I had a rather large lump on my head (in my hair so it wasn't particularly visible) that had been growing very, very slowly over several years. It started even before I left for Cambodia. It didn't cause me a problem and being a typical guy, if it didn't hurt and it wasn't particularly visible, I just kinda ignored it. Until one day a friend of mine persuaded me to go to a clinic in PP to get it looked at.

I guess my main concern was whether it was cancerous or not - I doubted it because as far as I know, cancer works much faster than the several years it took for this egg shaped thing in my hair to grow. I was given quite a thorough ultra-scan by. woman who was making a half-hearted attempt to show me what it was on the screen, but I can never make out those black-and-white images they use for baby scans etc.

All I wanted to know was whether it was dangerous or not. Was it going to cause me a problem? If it's not cancerous now, how likely is it to turn cancerous in the future. All pretty reasonable questions I though. So I asked the scanner-lady at the end 'What do you think? Is it dangerous? Is it likely to cause me and issue? She literally shrugged her shoulders and said "Maybe. It might do. But it might not." and with that she slapped her gloves off, gave me some towels to wipe the gunky stuff off my hair and left the room.

My friend and I were left wondering if/when she would return. She didn't. We went back down to reception and were charged $60 for the privilege of having absolutely zero extra knowledge of my condition than when we walked in there.

I could recall many other cases where doctors seem wary of giving too much information about the condition you've gone there to see them for, and I always suspect that it's because they're scared you might know more about your condition than they do and they don't want to look foolish. I've even been to doctors before now and after explaining my symptoms, been told "What do you want me to do about it?" - I don't know. Forgive me but aren't YOU the doctor and I'M the patient? How about you tell me what needs to be done??!!

I know they say that healthcare in general is improving in Cambodia. Perhaps I just need to stop being so tight and paying to see properly qualified and well recommended doctors.