British retiree recounts Vietnam hospital experience: 'Glad I got seriously ill here'

Editor’s note: “It sounds strange, but I was honestly much better off here than back home in the UK,” Baz Mattaz, 63, wrote to Tuoi Tre News while recovering from prostate surgery at a hospital in Da Nang, central Vietnam, in response to the newspaper’s request. 

In this first-person account, the British retiree recounts his emergency treatment and recovery, offering a personal comparison of healthcare in Vietnam and the UK. His views are personal and based on his own experience.

I’m so glad I got seriously ill in Vietnam! Sounds weird but honestly I was much better off here than at home in the UK.

I’m Baz Mattaz, 63 years old, British, and happily retired after a long career as a marketing director in London. After ticking off 34 countries and more cities than I can count, I decided to retire early in Da Nang. I’ve been here on and off ever since. These days all I really want is to quietly spend my life savings in peace, but visa rules make that a bit trickier than it should be.

Like many an old git my age, my main underlying problem was BPH – benign prostatic hyperplasia, or in plain English, an enlarged prostate. Back in the UK, the NHS (National Health Service) prefers to keep you on lifelong medication rather than offering surgery to actually fix it. I was on various tablets, but things kept getting worse until my prostate was blocking my kidneys from draining properly. By the time I walked into a hospital here in Da Nang, it was an emergency. My creatinine levels were over 300 – proper danger territory. They slapped a catheter in straight away to drain the bladder and told me I needed prostate surgery.

They didn’t offer the more modern HoLEP laser procedure in the first place, so I switched to Family Hospital. There I was lucky enough to get Dr. Chau Quy Thuan as my surgeon. A quick ChatGPT check told me I’d hit the jackpot, very experienced in this procedure: patients apparently nickname him 'bàn tay vàng' (golden hands). That gave me a lot of confidence.

The big decision was whether to have it done here or go back to the UK. I checked with my old UK doctor and a friend who works at a high level in the NHS. They were pretty blunt: if I wanted to wait months for what would probably be the older TURP procedure with a surgeon who might be less experienced, I could do it at home. Or I could pay privately in the UK and it would cost three to five times more than in Vietnam. They basically said, “If you’re happy with the doctor there, just get it done.”

So I stayed put. The whole thing at Family Hospital came to around VND60 million (US$2,278), including five days in hospital and several aftercare appointments and medication. They got me in immediately, no endless waiting lists. The care was brilliant: doctors and nurses were skilled, caring, and most spoke English (some fluently). I couldn’t fault the standard or the modern facilities.

A month on and I can report proper success. I can now pee like a racehorse for the first time in so many years, absolute game-changer! The only downside is that the kidney damage was already done. My creatinine has come down to around 150, but I’ve been left with Stage 3A Chronic Kidney Disease, roughly 50 percent kidney function. It’s manageable with a much better diet: goodbye salty processed food and Maccy D’s runs. I’m genuinely going to miss that bacon.

'Better off here'

Comparing the two systems is night and day. In Vietnam I got seen immediately, had a highly experienced specialist, modern equipment, and top-notch care at a reasonable price. In the UK I’d have faced long waits, probably ended up with a catheter for months, and either accepted whatever TURP slot came up or paid a small fortune privately. The quality here was easily as good, if not better in terms of speed and personal attention. And yes, it could have been even cheaper in a public hospital.

This whole experience has completely changed my view of Vietnam’s healthcare, in the best possible way. I went in expecting it to be “good for the price,” but I came out genuinely impressed by the skill, efficiency, and kindness I received. I’d happily recommend it to other expats or travellers in the same boat. If you need serious treatment and you’ve got a decent private hospital with English-speaking staff, Vietnam is a very strong option.

I’ll be forever grateful to Vietnam and its people for sorting me out. I plan to stay as long as the country welcomes me. My only real issue is how tricky it still is for retirees to put down proper roots here – higher value purchases, buying a vehicle, getting a long-term home lease, that sort of thing. We arrive with a lifetime of savings, looking for a quiet, affordable life. When the time comes for care-home support it would cost a fraction of what it does in the West, but you can’t exactly wheel me across the border to Laos every 90 days. And if I popped my clogs halfway between Vietnam and Laos… well, that would be a weird and complicated way to go.

All in all, I’m just glad I got seriously ill in Vietnam and not my own country. Sounds mad, I know, but I genuinely was better off here.