- How to decide whether your case is a fit at all
- What a Chinese hospital needs before it will answer you
- Which costs are ours and which are the hospital's
- The realistic timeline, from first message to follow-up at home
1. Start with the question, not the hospital
There are two very different trips hiding under the phrase "treatment in China". The first is a second opinion: you have a diagnosis, you want an experienced team to look at the same imaging and tell you whether the plan is right. The second is treatment itself: surgery, an implant, a course of therapy, with travel and a recovery period attached.
They need different preparation. A second opinion can often be handled remotely and costs little. Treatment requires a hospital to accept you as an inpatient, which means records, a deposit, a bed and a visa. Deciding which one you actually need saves weeks.
If your diagnosis is still unclear, the honest answer is that no coordinator can resolve it from a distance. What we can do is get the file in front of a department that sees a lot of your presentation, and let them tell you what tests they would run.
2. Build a file a doctor can read in ten minutes
Chinese tertiary hospitals are high-volume places. The specialists who review overseas cases usually do it between clinics, so the file that gets answered is the file that can be understood quickly. In practice that means:
- A one-page summary: diagnosis, date of diagnosis, stage or grade, what has been done so far, current medication and allergies.
- Imaging on disk in DICOM format where possible, not photographs of a screen. Reports alone are not enough for surgical decisions.
- Pathology report with the block or slide numbers, and the original slides if a review is requested.
- Blood results with units and reference ranges — Chinese labs use different units, and a bare number can be misread.
The records checklist goes through this item by item, including what to do when your hospital will only release a PDF.
3. Get the answer in writing before you book flights
A department that has read your file can usually tell you three things: whether they would accept the case, which physician would take it, and roughly how long you would need to stay. Ask for that in writing. It is the single most useful document in the whole process, because it converts a hopeful enquiry into a plan you can price and schedule.
What it will not be is a guarantee of outcome. Any hospital that promises results before examining you is telling you something about itself, not about medicine.
4. Understand the two bills
There are always two separate payments, and mixing them up is the most common source of friction.
The hospital bill is paid by you directly to the hospital: consultations, imaging, surgery, implants, drugs, bed days, intensive care if needed. We do not mark it up, and we do not take a commission from it. Public tertiary hospitals in China publish tariff ranges, and the international department will issue a written estimate for the planned procedure.
The service fee is what you pay for coordination: records translation and review, hospital and specialist matching, appointment booking, the visa invitation letter, airport pickup, interpretation during every appointment, and a named coordinator reachable while you are in the country. Our service fee is US$250, listed as its own line on your written estimate — and the pricing page sets out exactly what sits inside it.
Flights, visa fees, hotels and meals sit outside both bills. Budget for a longer stay than the surgeon predicts — additional tests before a final plan is common.
5. Visa and timing
Treatment in China normally runs on an S2 medical visa, which requires an invitation letter from the receiving hospital. We prepare the letter once an appointment is confirmed. Visa processing at most Chinese embassies takes about a week, but appointment slots and document checks vary by country, so build in slack.
On timing: consultations are usually available within days, and straightforward surgery can be scheduled within one to three weeks of acceptance. Complex multidisciplinary cases take longer, because the team needs to meet before it commits.
6. The first hospital day is the slowest
Expect registration, a passport check, a deposit payment, then the consultation. Chinese hospitals run on their own rhythm: payment before investigation, investigation before the plan is finalised. A single day can hold registration, blood work, an ECG, a CT and two specialist consultations — or it can hold three hours of waiting. An interpreter who knows the building is worth more on this day than on any other.
Bring your passport, the hospital's written confirmation, a card that works internationally, and a list of your medicines in Chinese if possible.
7. Leaving with paperwork, not just a discharge
Before you fly home, collect the discharge summary, operative note, imaging, laboratory results, pathology and an itemised bill. Ask the treating physician what warning signs should send you to a local emergency department, and who to contact with questions afterwards. We organise the bilingual document pack and stay reachable for follow-up coordination, but the clinical decisions after you leave belong to your doctors at home.