Non-civilian medical centers fall outside natl private contracting rule
A military hospital in Beijing halted all its external services on Wednesday after it was accused of contracting out services at its cancer clinic to a private owner that allegedly deceived a patient into receiving substandard treatment.
"The hospital is now undergoing reorganization and will halt all its external services, including outpatient care, emergency treatment and hospitalization, until further notice," read an announcement released by the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps on Wednesday.
The announcement came on the heels of health and military authorities' launch Tuesday of an investigation into the shady relations between the hospital and a private cancer clinic, which allegedly coaxed patients into consenting to substandard yet expensive treatment.
"Contracting out military departments to private hospitals has severely damaged the reputation of the army, and may lead to corruption. Such scandal should be dealt with seriously," Zeng Guang, a medical expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times.
Synovial sarcoma patient Wei Zexi died on April 12 after receiving immunotherapy from a private biomedical center at the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps.
Several patients who went through immunotherapy there have demanded full refunds from the hospital, which has promised to give an explanation and refunds on Friday, the Beijing Times reported.
"The medical scandal shows that loopholes still exist in the system for the supervision of military hospitals, which may offer some corrupt officials a chance to feather their nests," Song Zhongping, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times.
Since 2000, public hospitals in China have been forbidden to allow their departments to be run by private entities, but military hospitals fall outside the regulation's jurisdiction.
"Military hospitals are not supervised by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, but by the military's health departments. Some people may avail themselves of such loopholes to make personal gains," Song said. "Military hospitals should only be run by the army. Business relations between the military and society should be completely shut down to prevent corruption."
In 1998, the Communist Party of China Central Committee required the military and armed police to halt all business activities, only allowing some designated organizations and industries to continue to provide paid services.
China's Central Military Commission announced an end to all People's Liberation Army (PLA) and People's Armed Police Force paid services in March, with plans to completely stop all such services within three years.
Paid public services are services provided by the military to the public through hospitals and other institutions that do not pose a security risk, Gong Fangbin, a professor at the PLA's National Defense University, previously told the Global Times, adding that such services may be managed by social organizations in the future.
