Beijing Prohibits Public Hospitals from Using Commercial Appointment Booking Services
Ebrun, 3/01/16
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning released a notice on February 24 requiring that doctors and staff at Beijing's public hospitals cease to use appointment-booking services offered by commercial service providers. The notice said that any worker using these types of service should stop doing so immediately, and that those who were seeking to use their positions for personal gain were violating regulations as such conduct is unlawful. Those who fail to comply with the request will face disciplinary actions by the Ministry of Supervision and, potentially, investigation and prosecution, with those suspected of having broken the law to be handed over to the judicial authorities.
Every district commission and hospital is expected to nominate supervisors to oversee this process, with a deadline of March 25, 2016 for those involved in such activity to suspend any commercial partnerships and to disclose the names of the companies involved, the nature of the partnership, the fees received, the partnership cancellation period and similar information for future reference. The Municipal Commission will be carrying out spot checks on the relevant parties, with the aim of holding those attempting to cover up their involvement, those continuing to offend, and the hospitals failing to take sufficient measures to end the practice, with the exception of those responsible for investigating the implicated parties, to account for their actions.
Editor's Note: Over the past two months there has been an increasing number of reports of scalpers buying hospital appointment booking slots and selling them to patients who could not secure appointments. On January 25, a woman was filmed berating a scalper for allegedly selling RMB 300 appointments at Beijing Guang'anmen Hospital for RMB 4,500; the woman also accused the hospital, hospital security and the scalper of collusion (i.e. she suggested that the scalper was paying a kickback to hospital security to allow him to resell appointments in front of the hospital, rather than chasing him from the premises). On January 26, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning said that it will not tolerate scalping or any similar activity, and will crack down on this issue. On February 20, state-run television broadcaster CCTV said that scalpers were abusing mobile healthcare consultation and appointment app Yihu Doctor to purchase appointments with doctors and resell them at a higher price.
Keywords: Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning online healthcare mobile healthcare Internet Ministry of Supervision regulation
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