The Posthumous World

Preamble: I spent much of Autumn 2022 trying to arrange a CT scan in the UK or Europe…
Read more…

Many hospitals have a ‘self-referral’ process but this always led me to an MRI scan instead of a CT scan. When I spoke to a radiologist at St Bart’s they explained that it was not possible to get a CT scan without a medical referral in the UK. I went on to talk to private clinics in Italy, Poland, Turkey, Slovenia, India but the response was the same. A CT scan without a medical reason is considered to be an unnecessary exposure to radiation and is therefore not allowed. I could have a MRI scan but this is not so good for hard tissues and it is not possible to scan the whole body in one go. It is also not part of forensic procedures. I was told that even getting an MRI scan without a medical reason would not be easy as in the UK we do not have the same kind of screening culture as they do in places such as the US.

Eventually I find a hospital in Vietnam that agrees to perform a scan. Does this mean that hospitals in some countries have lower standards of safety than ours? How dangerous is a CT scan?
There are very few studies. This one states that it could increase your risk of cancer from 20% to 20.05% but it is very speculative:
Freshwater, S. (2013) How Much Do CT Scans Increase the Risk of Cancer? Scientific American. 18 June 2013
Overall, there is no conclusive evidence that there is a significant risk. I form the opinion that our regulations in the West are not based on practical evidence but on theoretical principles. In the West we believe that we live in a society that is safe, responsible and caring. Demonstrating this belief has become more important than its basis in reality.

The hospital near Da Nang had one of only three high resolution, 512 CT scanners in Vietnam, the others being in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. I was unsure of what the quality would turn out to be, but it was better quality than any I have had in the UK.

A full body CT scan request is very unusual. It is usually used to either investigate a specific area of the body or else for a general health check in which only the head and torso is scanned. My scan was under the auspices of a general health check and at the end I was handed a CD-Rom of the data, some print-outs and a written health diagnosis – all in Vietnamese. However, I was assured that everything was ‘normal’.

My CT scan was arranged with the help of Dr Chinh, the head of International Medicine. We were introduced by an artist friend of mine, Simon Hyde, who moved to Vietnam several years ago.

Seeing as I was traveling so far, I expected to arrange an appointment some time in advance and have everything confirmed just like we do at hospitals in the UK. But no – I was just asked to turn up. Within two days I had booked a flight and a hotel and left. Sure enough, as soon as I arrived I contacted Dr Chin who invited me to come to the hospital the following morning. Although their CT scanner seemed to be in constant use there was no sign of a long queuing system – they simply fitted me in.

It took a few hours to prepare, after which we were sent away while they processed the data and then returned to pick it up. It cost just over £200.

A big thanks to Dr Chinh, Dr Hoang, Dr Phuong and all the staff at the Vinh Duc hospital for making me so welcome and for making this project possible.