Private hospitals begin to nurse big ambitions(4)

More time for patients

To some, such as 39-year-old Zhou Jingsheng, who worked in the rehabilitation center of a public hospital in Beijing for many years, switching to a private hospital offers more job satisfaction.

"Rehabilitation gets less support in public hospitals because it brings in less money than surgery," he said. "Now I can dedicate all my time to taking care of my patients and learning new techniques. Job satisfaction is really important to me."

Zhou said he loves his job and wants to provide patients with the best help he can. He visited the US to learn about rehabilitation techniques in 2008, and in March this year, he joined Beijing United Family Hospital.

"Here, I can apply what I learned in the US and provide better treatment to patients."

Pan Zhongying, general-manager of Beijing United Family Hospital, said that in private hospitals and clinics doctors can give more attention to patients because they have more time to focus on patients.

"In some public hospitals, a physician sees more than 50 patients in a morning and they have to do all the administrative work as well. In private hospitals, they only need to take care of patients, the administrative tasks are done by other professionals," she said.

Pan also said that because private hospitals and clinics pay their medical workers higher salaries they don't have the "gray income" problem found in public hospitals, where doctors increase their incomes by prescribing expensive medicines and treatments.