My Experience using the Lim Taing Clinic in Phnom Pehn
12000 Street 13B, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I vaguely recall the first time I heard about this place, while searching for hip replacements in Cambodia years ago. Their facebook page was the only result for the country, and there was a video of someone who had received one, hobbling around on a walker. I hadn’t heard of anything else being available in the country and it seemed a bit nascent to consider at that point.

Years later, I’m still living in Cambodia and have got to the point where I need to arrange the operation. I met an expatriate on a local forum who said he had received the operation at Lim Tiang years ago. I was really excited to hear this because it meant that I’d be able to not leave the Kingdom, to arrange my recovery here, in a country I understand, can arrange things in, have contacts and feel at home in. It would be a huge plus.

I have a complex case though. There is undiagnosed, lifelong weakness. A decade ago I was investigated for proximal myopathy, and I feel this has progressed. Most of the pain now is in my shins, and if this is due to weakened proximal muscles (and the lower muscles compensating) then a hip replacement might be of limited benefit.

Also I have symptoms of PAD, and foot pain and discolouration, collapsing veins in my shin and some of the pain could be vascular.

I have some very unusual, lifelong abnormalities and I have a feeling this is a genetic issue. I’ve found a very rare condition online that mirrors my unusual, and specific issues, so this is something to look into.

I’ve been researching for a long time now and knew that the first stage would be to get new X-rays. I had just one on my right hip years ago and was told to get a replacement. About 15 years before that, the left was X-rayed in India and surgery recommended… so my current plan was to get three X-rays as stage one to arranging surgery. I have lower back pain also, which isn’t uncommon with hip arthritis, but in my case could be due to weakening muscles. So after these X-rays I’d need advice about what kind of MRI to get to check the muscles.

I found a place in Toul Tom Poung that was specifically a scanning centre and emailed asking the price, but they didn’t respond. Sunrise Japanese Hospital replied with a detailed price list and insisted on consultation. Lim Taing did also actually reply to me, but wouldn’t allow me to order the X-rays directly, you have to have a consultation, and this was cheaper than Sunrise.

I was communicating with Lim Taing via their facebook page. I explained I wanted to prepare for a hip replacement and so would want to speak to someone who has done this operation and they suggested Dr. Meng Sok at the Midtown branch. They have two branches, this and the Orkide branch. I know this from the reviews and there was a complaint about the staff at the Midtown branch, and I had wanted to avoid it, but looking at the reviews, there were two positive reviews for Dr. Meng Sok and the fact that they wanted to arrange this with him made me presume he has performed this operation.

So the appointment was arranged. I made the journey out there, about twenty minutes from the centre. The midtown branch is quite unappealing, the entrance is set within a covered, dark car park. Inside the staff spoke very limited English. I can speak some Khmer. They didn’t ask for ID. I was weighed and blood pressure taken. The reception/waiting area is large and somehow gloomy. There were no other patients, which gave it a desolate feel. There was only one kind of seat, a low, very cushioned seat that was painful for me and seemed an odd choice considering the patients they were dealing with.

When it was my ‘turn’ (there seemed to be no other patients) I was led into the consulting room. The doctor sat behind the desk. To his right there was another man whose role was unclear, and a woman from reception stood behind the doctor at the wall, almost to attention. All three stared at me intently and waited for me to speak. This was a totally bizzarre, almost surreal set up. I was so uncomfortable I almost called it off right then and walked out, but I thought perhaps things will progress? It felt like being grilled for a job interview. Luckily, I had got AI to create a double-sided sheet with my health history and concerns. Mainly I wanted three X-rays, a check to see if PAD could be responsible for the pain, an opinion on the state of the proximal muscle, and to start making progress towards arranging the operation.

The doctor read it wordlessly and then handed it back to me. He told me to lie fully clothed on the nearby bed. I went over. They followed me. I mean, he came over, with one person either side of him in tandem, wordlessly staring at me. It was almost like a horror film. Well he did nothing other than take my clothed leg, raise it, twist in side to side, then lowered it – and then backed away. The two … whatever they were, stayed in position, by the bed staring. He was about four meters away and started talking about something, I have no idea. It was about hiking. I honestly can’t say what this was about. I just wanted to leave.

It only went on about half a minute, then he returned to the desk and said he would order only one X-ray. I said that I needed three, like for my back – but he cut me off and seemed irritated. He said, if you want to deal with your back then you have to go to a specialist. That was my cue to get up and out and back to the relative sanctuary of the gloomy waiting room.

So a nurse came over and said there was only going to be one X-ray. Not what I needed but I simply didn’t want to talk to this guy so I just went with it. She said it would be fifteen US, so I said fine.

After five minutes a young guy came and led me to the X-ray room. There was a bed in the centre and a little area with a curtain to put some pants on. I went in and got undressed but wear compression stockings and didn’t know if they should stay on. I asked and he came over but I couldn’t explain. I was undressed and pointed to the stockings and made a ‘shooing’ gesture, asking, ‘Off? Off’, but he couldn’t communicate. I tried in my (not great) Khmer, (Ni Mouy Tau? (this one go?)) while pointing to the stocking.

He couldn’t understand so I sat without the curtain, clothes on the floor. He came back with another guy who also couldn’t understand my rubbish Khmer but for some reason didn’t use gestures to explain what he meant. There was various shouting among the staff, then I heard someone from the reception desk shouting (at least ten meters away) ‘KEEP ON! KEEP ON!’.

So then I was on the table. He positioned me the way he wanted me, on my back with my feet pointing inwards towards each other. This was very painful and I’m not sure he understood that. He kept coming and going for multiple attempts, each time pushing my feet towards each other which hurt me. I kept saying ‘Chu chu’ (sick, sick). ‘Luuen luuen’ (quickly, quickly). The last time he put me in that position he never came back. I held it as long as I could and when the muscles gave out I just lie there. I waited, and slowly realized he was gone and not coming back. I got up and there was no one around this room, so I assumed that was it, got dressed and went back to the waiting room.

Next I was called back into the consultation room. The three of them took up their positions, the exact same positions, meaning it’s choreographed that way, and the same wordless staring. He had the X-ray on the screen. He said, ‘Yes, you need replacement. Do you have any questions?’
I asked, ‘One side?’
‘Both’
‘Is resurfacing an option for me?’.
I asked about this as, with reduced muscles, there is less chance of dislocation, plus it would be a faster recovery time and it’s suitable for (relatively) younger patients.
‘What is that?’
‘Resurfacing.’
‘What does it mean!’

He was actually getting irritated at this point and I was a little shocked. I explained what resurfacing is he appeared to be confused, then angry. He raised his voice and just kept repeating, ‘No. Replace!’.

I was pretty shocked, mainly at having to explain what this is and also his attitude. He asked if there was anything else. Of course, there is. I’m paying for a consultation… so examine me. Look at the veins.Can PAD be adding to the problem. Is the reduced muscle at the core going to be an issue. LOOK AT IT. Should there be an MRI? Should I do bilateral or two seperate, and if the latter, then how long to space them. How long is the recovery? What is the next step? It was all on the sheet I had handed him and he’d dismissed.

But I just wanted to get away. I said no and he said, ‘Go to your country and get.’, which is absurd. I’d already told him I’ve lived here for ten years, i.e. not entitled to that care, am paying out of pocket here in Cambodia – or why would I even have come to this clinic at all?

So I went to the waiting area. A woman brought me the bill. The X-ray was 20 and the doctor 20. Well there is a bill posted online in the reviews, where a consultation is 15, but that was a year before (… and a local customer?). A 33% increase in one year is 30% above the rate of inflation, but I’d already been quoted that and had assumed it was going to be worth it. But the X-ray was also 20, and I’d just been quoted 15. By this point I was getting irritated as I’d obviously wasted my time, I only had one X-ray when I need three, and wasted money on… basically nothing, so I asked about it.

They brought over some head person who thought about it. She said that they added five dollars because they were now including a written interpretation which I would receive by Telegram. But now I was outright suspicious, why was that not a seperate charge on the bill? The bill was a spreadsheet printed directly from the computer with a single charge for the X-ray. She said it can be removed and waited for me to be shamed out of it, but I wouldn’t be because even that was essentially completely wasted money, now I have to go and get an actual consultation somewhere else.

So the bill was reprinted. They did give me an image via Telegram, but no interpretation. I was also given the film in an envelope. I left.

So, what do I think now about my experience? Firstly, I think if there was price transparency it would avoid misunderstandings and suspicions. I asked about specific X-rays, and other places I asked gave prices/spreadsheets rather than a range. Also, if the common prices were available online, then it would avoid issues.

Concerning the setup. The extra people in the room and their odd behaviour seems very strange to me. There are differences in the way things are done locally, but even allowing for this, this was not conductive to the purpose. My personal opinion of the doctor was that he had a very poor communication style, he completely disregarded the carefully constructed list of issues and concerns I had compiled and the ‘examination’ was so precursory that it cannot be considered an examination at all. In fact, I wouldn’t even call this a consultation. He did no useful thing to earn that fee. He merely gatekept the (wrong) X-ray.

When I got home I was feeling quite down, even violated in some way. I had to call my friend and she came over and we discussed the events just to calm my mind. At the end of the day, I have a single X-ray, which is at least some progress. I’m not sure what happened. I’ve since gone back to look at the reviews on the google page about this clinic and the doctor and checked out the reviewers and they seem very genuine, so some of my issues could be simply bad luck, catching him on a bad day. Also, complaints about the auxillary staff seem to be centred around Midtown branch, it might be better at the other one. However, I can only go by my own experience. I went there for X-rays and a consultation, and I need to find somewhere else now for X-rays and a consultation because I paid for this here but didn’t receive it. I cannot recommend either this clinic nor this doctor.