Beijing hospitals overwhelmed by outsider patients  

北京成“全國看病中心”：日均70萬外地患者赴京

日前，《瞭望》新聞周刊記者調研了解到，由于北京優質醫療衛生資源集中，大量外地人口進京看病就醫，使北京三級醫院不堪重負，也加劇了城市人口和交通負擔，甚至被戲稱為“全國看病中心”。有關人士建議，應以推進京津冀協同發展為契機，優化區域醫療資源布局，完善國家醫療服務體系，通過資源疏解、合作辦醫、完善醫保等措施，加快提升河北等周邊省市醫療服務水平，緩解首都就醫壓力。 [查看全文]

(ECNS) – A concentration of high quality medical resources in Beijing daily lures hundreds of thousands of people from outside the city who come seeking better medical care, according to the Outlook Weekly magazine.

China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) has calculated that some 220 million people have sought medical help in Beijing. More than 30,360,000 of them were from other cities and provinces and have seen doctors in the city's top-level hospitals.

Fang Laiying, the director of Beijing's Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, said outsiders accounted for one third of the patients in top-level hospitals, and that the ratio was higher in some specialized facilities.

And as demand speeds up, Beijing's medical service staff has been increasing in recent years. In 2013, the number of medical staff in Beijing reached 294,000, growing by 6.3 percent compared with a year earlier. These staff dealt with some 220 million patients the same year, an increase of 10.9 percent over the previous year.

According to the NHFPC, among the patients from outside Beijing, about 23 percent were from Hebei province, which is adjacent to the capital.

Yang Jianxin, director of the provincial health and family planning commission, said it is mainly because of the poor medical and health services in the province. "Tens of thousands of patients are transferred to Beijing or Tianjin for better treatment every year," he added.

Zhen Zhijian, member of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, said Beijing should not become a center for medical treatment. "Patients from other cities and provinces flood into Beijing for medical help, which not only increases the medical costs, but also increases the city's burden," Zhen added.

Zhen suggested that Beijing's neighboring cities and provinces should establish medical institutions to treat excessive patients, which could stimulate local development of medical services.