|
 Yu, 32, makes a living touting the tickets that Chinese hospitals
sell in advance for consultations. His tickets will get a patient in
front of a doctor in two days, he says, compared with a wait that
can be up to a fortnight.
Dodging passing police patrols as part of his daily routine, Yu
charges 850 yuan ($131) for a "special care" appointment ticket -
almost three times the face value. He told Reuters he keeps 200 yuan
from each sale, with the rest of the profit going to hospital
insiders who he said help him secure the tickets.
"The city's upper middle class are always willing to pay this amount
or even higher - as long as they can get an appointment," Yu said,
speaking between frequent phone calls that he said came from
would-be clients. In the background, other scalpers competed for
custom, shouting out their prices.
The street crime casts light on the scale of the challenge President
Xi Jinping faces as he looks to overhaul a creaking and underfunded
public health system to deliver on a promise of affordable and
accessible care for all.
In line with this drive, authorities have tried to crack down on
healthcare corruption and police say they have detained some 240
scalpers in Beijing alone this year. Many patients and doctors say,
though, the time-served practice is just a symptom of deeper issues:
a dearth of doctors and low salaries meaning graft is endemic.
"Scalpers are a real headache for us," a spokeswoman for the Peking
Union hospital surnamed Chen told Reuters by phone. "There's a
crackdown on them, but it's a hard problem to cure."
The spokeswoman added the hospital and its doctors were victims of
scalpers and were not involved in the practice.
DOZENS OF SCALPERS
A viral video earlier this year of a woman with her sick mother
raging against scalpers brought a public outcry and calls for
arrests and tough jail sentences. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3lUF5XXnuw)
Authorities have promised to intensify their crackdown. But when
Reuters visited hospitals in Shanghai and Beijing, dozens of
scalpers operated in plain sight, loudly offering tickets for sale.
A spokesman at the Beijing city health department said police needed
to "strengthen" their efforts, and it would take some time to see
any real results. China's national health ministry did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
Feng Jianqi, a police officer involved in leading the crackdown on
scalpers in Beijing, said the police could not resolve the issue
alone. Part of the problem was that so many patients wanted to see
the same doctors, he said.
"It's just not realistic to totally eradicate scalpers. It's just
too hard," he told Reuters by phone.
The problem is acute for patients like Cao Dongxian. The middle-aged
school teacher traveled to Beijing in May last year from his home in
Shandong province after local doctors refused to carry out a risky
intestinal cancer operation.
State insurance coverage is limited in China, meaning patients often
have to pay a large part if healthcare costs themselves, especially
those with major long-term diseases like cancer or diabetes.
[to top of second column] |
Keen to avoid paying scalpers, Cao spent months queuing in hospital
lines for repeat tests before doctors eventually said his cancer
needed an urgent operation. Cao was then told he would have to begin
queuing again: this time for a hospital bed.
"It was October by the time I got to have my operation ... more than
four months," Cao said. "On top of that your body's in pain - it
really hurts."
'MARKET PRICE'
In hindsight, Cao said he wished he had gone to scalpers straight
away. Doctors also appear resigned to the practice, as wealth
spreads in China and patients accept the reality that paying more
will bring speedier treatment.
"(Basic) appointment fees don't reflect the economic value of
doctors' skills and experience," said Wu Yuan, an eye doctor at the
Peking University First Hospital in Beijing.
"Scalpers are simply selling the doctor's appointment at a price the
market is prepared to pay," Wu said. He said the practice was
routine but that he had no knowledge of any doctor involvement in
ticket resales.
Even as China's hospitals suffer, the broader market for drugs and
services is a lure for firms like e-commerce giant Alibaba Group
Holding and hospital operator Phoenix Healthcare, attracted by a
wider healthcare bill that is set to hit $1.3 trillion by 2020.
For patients like Cao or Zhang Pengyu, a 38-year-old realtor from
the outskirts of Beijing, scalpers are source of frustration and
anger, but sometimes a necessary evil.
He waited unsuccessfully for three nights to see an ear, nose and
throat doctor at Beijing Tongren Hospital. He finally gave in to
scalpers, paying 3,000 yuan for a 10-minute appointment that should
have cost just 200 yuan.
"I wanted to queue myself and not pay so much money, but I just
couldn't wait any more. I didn't have time," said Zhang.
(Reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom and Adam Jourdan; Additional
reporting by Elaine Tan in MANILA and Natalie Thomas in BEIJING;
Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
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