2016年CRI Experts: Hospital Scalping Crackdown Not Enough

 

A new campaign against medical appointment scalping is underway in Beijing after video of a young girl denouncing outpatient appointment scalpers went viral this week.

Since then, a dozen people have been busted¹ for illegally selling hospital appointments, including 7 at the Guang'anmen Hospital in Beijing where the video was shot.

Despite the new crackdown, officials in China's medical industry admit it's not going to be easy to root-out scalpers.

Huang Jinhui is with the city of Guangzhou's Healthcare Department.

"The scalpers look no different from anyone else. So it's difficult to pick them out. On top of this, they will face no more than administrative² detention³ if they're caught red-handed."

Under the current structure here in China, people from rural areas of the country have a difficult time gaining access to medical facilities in the country's major cities, as they won't be covered under the national medicare program, and will have to pay completely out-of-pocket.

As such, scalpers using local identification cards can book appointments and then sell them to people without the proper documentation.

Zhuang Yiqiang with the Chinese Hospital Association says the best way to eliminate this issue is to make the medical system in China more uniform.

"The fundamental reason behind the issue is not necessarily the scalping, but rather the low-quality of the medical system in the rural areas. If local hospitals were capable of offering better treatment, then patients wouldn't insist on travelling to a hospital in Beijing for treatment."

Of the 100 top-ranked hospitals across the country, 23 are located in Beijing, 20 are in Shanghai and 9 are in Guangdong province.

Liu Zhen with Guang'anmen Hospital in Beijing says this puts a huge amount of pressure on their staff.

"We have 400 doctors. However, the number of patients we see a day exceeds 11-thousand. Don't you think that we are overburdened?"

Also among the busiest hospitals in the capital is Beijing Children's Hospital.

That facility has seen its yearly patient numbers increase from 2.3 million in 2011 to close to 3.4 million in 2014.

Liu Guo'en with the State Council's Health Care System Reform Advisory⁴ Committee says this is something they're working on addressing.

"Apart from consistent crackdowns on scalpers, we're also trying to step up the reforms in the country's medicare system. As there are only around 5 hospital beds for every 1-thousand people in China, which is an even higher ratio than in the US, it’s urgent that we try to convince people to see doctors at community-level clinics, particularly if they are not critically ill."

A national real-name medical appointment booking system is being worked on.

The system was first introduced in Beijing's hospitals in 2011.

However, it's not linked with the country's national ID database.

This makes it easy for scalpers to book an appointment using a fake ID card.

For CRI, this is Luo Wen.

1 busted   

adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You are so busted! 你被当场逮住了！
• It was money troubles that busted up their marriage. 是金钱纠纷使他们的婚姻破裂了。

2 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

3 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

4 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。