A Chinese mother being told by doctors that her child would have normal 10 fingers and 10 toes, only to discover upon birth the baby boy has 15 fingers and 16 toes, indicates what’s wrong with public hospitals in China.
While such errors may not happen all the time, China’s public hospital system is plagued by other problems such as cut back on services, doctor shortages and too many patients that a growing number of Chinese parents have shifted to international private hospitals for their baby’s care, reported Global Times.
One such local hospital that reduced its service is the Haidian Hospital in Beijing which cancelled its nighttime emergency pediatric service, from midnight to 8 a.m. because of doctor shortage, reported People’s Daily.
With China’s new two-child policy in placed, there would be further demand on services of pediatricians as more babies are born, resulting in longer wait in clinics, shorter doctor visits and overcrowding, which could expose sick infants to more infectious diseases.
At the Beijing Children’s Hospital, a mother recalled bringing her sick daughter in 2015 to the emergency department, there were only two physicians and more than 100 sick people waiting to be attended to, which meant she had to wait for several hours before the daughter’s turn.
Last week, the State Council announced 2 billion yuan subsidies to public hospitals in 100 trial cities as part of the national health care reform of 2016. The cabinet also sought strict control of medical costs.
With China’s young population of 230 million children below 14 and pediatrician headcount of 118,000, it means there are only 5.3 doctors for children for every 10,000 kids. In contrast, the ratio is 14.6 pediatricians for every 10,000 children in the U.S.