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Reforming public hospital system
Source: Xinhua |
March 15, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE high cost and poor availability of health services have been among the loudest complaints of the Chinese public.
"Why it is so difficult for ordinary people to see a doctor?" asked Wang Faxue, who lost 2.5 kilograms in a week while accompanying his 70-year-old mother to hospitals for lung cancer treatments last month. Wang, a farmer in Hebei Province, sought help from his relatives in Beijing for accommodation so he could catch the first bus in the morning to the hospital.
"The registration hall is like an asylum as many people slept on the ground overnight to grab registration opportunities," he said, recalling the first visit to Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), one of the capital's most famous public hospitals.
Wang had visited nearly all top public hospitals in the city and ended up paying 300 yuan (US$44) to a scalper, almost 20 times the normal registration fee, so they could see a renowned doctor in PUMCH. His mother died this month.
China had around 14,000 public hospitals by November 2009, representing about 90 percent of the overall medical service market. Out-of-pocket patient costs for medical services increased 200 times in China between 1978 and 2005, but the number of hospitals and medical staff grew by 76 percent and 75 percent respectively during that period.
Public hospitals in China enjoyed full government funding before 1985. The situation has changed since then as public hospitals embarked on a market-oriented reform in late 1978. Soaring medical costs have resulted from the fact that doctors and hospitals peddle expensive drugs and prescribe unneeded treatments to supplement salaries and revenue.
The State Council passed a medical reform plan in January 2009, which promised to spend 850 billion yuan by 2011 to provide universal medical service to the country's 1.3 billion population.
In his report to the National People's Congress on March 5, Premier Wen Jiabao called for equal policy treatment to private hospitals, especially in the fields of market admittance and granting medical insurance status.
"Why it is so difficult for ordinary people to see a doctor?" asked Wang Faxue, who lost 2.5 kilograms in a week while accompanying his 70-year-old mother to hospitals for lung cancer treatments last month. Wang, a farmer in Hebei Province, sought help from his relatives in Beijing for accommodation so he could catch the first bus in the morning to the hospital.
"The registration hall is like an asylum as many people slept on the ground overnight to grab registration opportunities," he said, recalling the first visit to Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), one of the capital's most famous public hospitals.
Wang had visited nearly all top public hospitals in the city and ended up paying 300 yuan (US$44) to a scalper, almost 20 times the normal registration fee, so they could see a renowned doctor in PUMCH. His mother died this month.
China had around 14,000 public hospitals by November 2009, representing about 90 percent of the overall medical service market. Out-of-pocket patient costs for medical services increased 200 times in China between 1978 and 2005, but the number of hospitals and medical staff grew by 76 percent and 75 percent respectively during that period.
Public hospitals in China enjoyed full government funding before 1985. The situation has changed since then as public hospitals embarked on a market-oriented reform in late 1978. Soaring medical costs have resulted from the fact that doctors and hospitals peddle expensive drugs and prescribe unneeded treatments to supplement salaries and revenue.
The State Council passed a medical reform plan in January 2009, which promised to spend 850 billion yuan by 2011 to provide universal medical service to the country's 1.3 billion population.
In his report to the National People's Congress on March 5, Premier Wen Jiabao called for equal policy treatment to private hospitals, especially in the fields of market admittance and granting medical insurance status.
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