The information below is provided by past and current JETs who are sharing their positive or negative experience with medical facilities/practitioners within Oita Prefecture. Please take into account that a significant amount of time may have passed and that the information within the recommendations may have changed. We have put the reviews in date order, newest first, for your convenience. Please use your own best judgement when seeking medical treatment.
Would you recommend this facility to a person who CANNOT speak Japanese?: No
Would you recommend this facility to a person who CANNOT speak Japanese, but is accompanied by someone who CAN speak Japanese?: Yes
Were the office/intake staff, assistants and nurses able to communicate in English with you?:No, none of the intake staff could speak to me in English. The forms are also exclusively Japanese.
Was the Doctor/Practitioner able to communicate in English with you?: One of the physicians can speak to me in English. Not perfect, and sometimes asks for corrections, but I've gotten along well with him.
Care received: Common cold/fever/influenza, Broken bones/sprains/fractures/etc., Gastroenterology; I have come to this hospital many times due to the nearby presence of an English-speaking physician. I have mainly gone to him for digestive problems, especially as of this typing. He learned English somewhere in the US, but he is not 100% perfect. However, he is patient, and friendly.
Would you recommend this facility to a person who CANNOT speak Japanese?: No
Would you recommend this facility to a person who CANNOT speak Japanese, but is accompanied by someone who CAN speak Japanese?: No
Were the office/intake staff, assistants and nurses able to communicate in English with you?: They were not able to communicate in English
Was the Doctor/Practitioner able to communicate in English with you?: Not in full sentences, but occasionally took my silence as me misunderstanding and would try to throw in simple English words.
Care received: Severe bruising, nerve death in knees and potential dislocation of joint; Was able to walk-in and receive an appointment within half an hour. There didn't seem to be any English speaking staff. Facility was quite modern. Costs were average. Visited only once; will never return. Doctor was dismissive and tried to act as though I was fine/overreacting. Aside from being dismissive of the fact that I could barely walk and generally talking over me, answered a personal phone call in the middle of our consultation about his grandmother's birthday party, also mentioning during said phone call that he was 'currently with a white person' while laughing. Doctor didn't even bother to examine me, and when I insisted on being seen he said I should go to a colleague of his and attempted to tell me to go in the morning and when I said I could not, berated me for having a job and acted like it was my own fault if I couldn't receive care because he wasn't willing to look up a secondary appointment time outside of my work hours. Would never recommend; not foreign friendly and would not recommend to Japanese people either.
Would you recommend this facility to a person who CANNOT speak Japanese?: No
Would you recommend this facility to a person who CANNOT speak Japanese, but is accompanied by someone who CAN speak Japanese?: Yes
Were the office/intake staff, assistants and nurses able to communicate in English with you?: No
Was the Doctor/Practitioner able to communicate in English with you?: Yes, enough to point out relevant info on the chart and ask if I was in pain.
Care received: Broken bones/sprains/fractures/etc. Walked in and waited about 20 minutes. Facility was fine, nothing fancy. Got an x-ray on my knee and the doc offered to do an MRI. Paid $18 at the desk and then walked across the street to the pharmacy to get some heat pads. Overall very professional and helpful environment and staff was patient as I fumbled with my translation app.
Would you recommend this facility to a person who CANNOT speak Japanese?: Yes
Would you recommend this facility to a person who CANNOT speak Japanese, but is accompanied by someone who CAN speak Japanese?: Yes
Were the office/intake staff, assistants and nurses able to communicate in English with you?: The receptionists did not speak much English, but they called around and found a doctor to help me fill out paperwork the first time I visited.
Was the Doctor/Practitioner able to communicate in English with you?: My doctor spoke very good English and had lived in the United States for two years.
Care received: Cut bandaged, cyst infection; This is a pretty new facility; the first time I went they had me fill out a lot of information, but after that they gave me a card that stored all of my information and could be rewritten with information for my next appointment. The staff were friendly, and I was treated by two different doctors on two separate occasions that spoke decent English, and a third doctor who was not treating me introduced himself to me in English. I went for two different issues, to get a deep cut bandaged and later for an unrelated infection, and each time I felt like the doctors treating me were working well below their usual pay-grade because they happened to be the ones who spoke English. The cost of the visits and prescriptions was extremely low.