Medical bribery is the lubricant of Chinese hospitals

Source: Bio exploration 2013-07-25 medical bribery (public relations fee) is the lubricant for the operation of public hospitals in China For those doctors and hospital managers with low incomes, without these potential gray incomes, the operation of the public hospital system in China will be difficult Medical industry experts explain this Under China's medical system, doctors and other hospital employees collect kickbacks and extra fees from pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment suppliers The GlaxoSmithKline incident fully exposed the weakness of the industry Last week, the British GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical company was investigated by Chinese police The company was suspected of bribing Chinese doctors for nearly six years to promote its own drug monopoly market and raise the price of drugs This week, GlaxoSmithKline officially admitted that its Chinese executives violated Chinese law China is a very attractive market for pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment manufacturers According to McKinsey consulting, China's medical market spending will grow from $35.7 billion in 2011 to $1 trillion in 2020 The root of corruption comes from the low wage level of doctors in public hospitals Although hospitals can pay bonuses, this compensation is a drop in the bucket because public hospitals are short of money Doctors who just graduated from medical school earn nearly 3000 yuan ($490) a month in Beijing, roughly the same as a taxi driver "Doctors with more than 10 years of experience also earn about 10000 yuan a month." Industry sources said Low wages cannot survive in the past 30 years The Chinese government has reformed medical institutions, and the health care system is market-oriented This means that 13500 public hospitals in China have to balance their income and expenditure According to the data released by the Ministry of health in 2011, the income of the whole medical service only accounts for 50% of the income of public hospitals, about 40% of which comes from prescription drugs, and the rest comes from other projects and government subsidies Since the 1980s, the income of public hospitals has declined steadily Hospitals can increase their income by setting up some patient care fees, nursing fees and laboratory examination fees However, due to the reform of the medical system by the Chinese government, the operating costs are being cut to make the ordinary people affordable, so the operating costs of hospitals are increased invisibly By limiting the retail price of prescription drugs, hospitals naturally become another big weight to increase revenue Doctors who left the hospital for a high-income job in a public hospital in Beijing revealed that 80% of their income came from bribes Without these grey income, the doctor's monthly income is only 600 yuan The doctor left China five years ago to continue his practice in the UK Bribery and corruption have infiltrated all levels of China's public hospitals, and these gray incomes are seen as necessities in the current medical implementation system, said an unnamed Chinese medical executive China's Ministry of health declined to comment on the blackout in the country's medical industry, and the national development and Reform Commission, which sets the price of prescription drugs, declined to comment "Low basic wage is a legacy of China's planned economy, which is also a dilemma facing the Chinese government." Jia Xijin, an associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of public policy and management, said The Chinese government has promised 1.37 billion Chinese can afford to pay for health care Since 2009, the government has spent 2200 billion yuan (US $358 billion) on the entire health care system, of which more than 68 billion yuan has been spent to improve the coverage of universal health insurance The phenomenon of "red envelope" cannot be eradicated It is more and more difficult for public hospitals to recruit doctors The number of outpatients is increasing and doctors' salaries are stagnant According to the Ministry of health, the overall number of doctors increased by 13% from 2008 to 2011, while the number of outpatients increased by 28% Low wages also give rise to the corrupt root system of asking patients for "red envelopes" Patients usually give "red envelopes" as gifts to doctors in the lunar new year Wang Bob, a 35 year old businessman in Beijing, said he paid an additional 5000 yuan "red envelope" for his aunt's surgeon in charge of the femur bone transplantation on the basis of 100000 yuan of medical expenses, for fear that the doctor would not operate carefully during the operation If there is no "red envelope", the patient's illness will take a long time from registration, waiting for the hospital bed, seeing the doctor to doing the operation until the illness is delayed Patients and their families spend two to three times more on "red envelopes" than on actual medical expenses In fact, it is almost impossible to eradicate corruption It's easy for the government to find out the recipients of red envelopes If every doctor is found guilty, how can the hospital survive?