WHAT HOSPITAL SHOULD I GO TO?

Medical practices in Hanoi fall into essentially 1 of 3 categories. Ordered from cheapest to most expensive, the categories are (a) Vietnamese hospitals, (b) French hospitals and (c) American hospitals. If, god forbid, you are having a medical emergency in Vietnam, chances are you will be willing to pay a bit extra for a doctor that speaks your language. Don’t worry too much – they are all decent places… but here is the place I go to.

FAMILY MEDICAL PRACTICE (AMERICAN) 
Address: 298 Kim Ma Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi

This is where I go. It’s American, and I’m not going to lie: it’s pricey. It’s not crazy by Western standards, but it’s not cheap. But I’m a bit temperamental when it comes to this stuff, so I’m willing to pay extra to feel like I’m in a good place. I have heard too many “guy goes to hospital in the developing world” horror stories to mess around with this. It’s a good place, and they can perform just about anything you would ever (reasonably) need to have done to you. You will be safe here.

L’HÔPITAL FRANCAIS DE HANOI (FRENCH) 
Address: 1 Phuong Mai Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi

As an alternative, this is the French hospital in Hanoi. I’ve actually never been to this hospital, because I lived right next to the American hospital, which is supposed to be better, but it’s a good second-round pick. They should speak English, so leave your French-English dictionary at home.

WHAT ABOUT PHARMACIES?

Seeing an actual doctor in Vietnam is a formality. If you feel confident enough to self-diagnose, then you can go to, literally, any pharmacy and buy the drugs you need. No prescription, no problem!

If you’re not sure what sort of drugs you need to get back on your feet, you can ask the pharmacist for a recommendation. They’ll probably “prescribe” you a pretty aggressive regiment of pills. In the few times I’ve done it, it’s never not made me feel better. Of course, you’ll need to either find a place that speaks English or figure something out to deal with the language barrier. The Google Translate app is great, but most of my trips to the pharmacy have been half-hearted games of charades.

How’s The Air Pollution In Hanoi?

Yeah, this is a real thing. It’s certainly not on the level of larger Asian cities like Beijing or Delhi, but you’ll notice the effects. What exactly are the effects? For most people, it tends to manifest as a bothersome post-nasal drip that comes and goes. Sometimes you might feel like you have a little head cold, or even start coughing, but in my experience these effects were less common. The headline is that these symptoms will never rise above the level of just being annoying.

If you want to take steps to decrease the affect that air pollution has on you, the best thing to do would be wear a face-mask when you’re driving a motorbike, especially during rush-hour traffic. The majority of the pollution that will have a direct effect on you is just exhaust from other vehicles on the road with you, which is pretty unavoidable unless you somehow manage to only need to be driving when there is no traffic. You can buy face-masks for almost no money at every corner store in the country, so I don’t think you’ll have any trouble tracking one down. They don’t 100% protect you, but they help.

Overall, I wouldn’t worry too much about this. It shouldn’t affect your quality of life in any substantial way and you can still do all the normal out-door stuff that you’d want to do like walk to get coffee, go for a run, etc.

Should I Have Some Form Of Health Insurance In Vietnam? 

This is a tough one. The short answer is probably 'yes.' However, all the normal things you'd use it for are so cheap that it's unlikely that you'd ever have to actually cash in on it. Even major events like broken bones can be treated for less money than most deductibles, which means that 99% of people who have health insurance in Hanoi will never need to use it. However, there is always the remote possibility of a true medical emergency occurring. In this case, you'll definitely be glad you have insurance. 

Although I don't think it ever actually saved me much money, I did have travel insurance while in Hanoi. I had insurance through Seven Corners. I'm not an authority on this stuff, but for whatever its worth, I'd recommend them.