Beijing hospitals overwhelmed by outsider patients  

北京成“全国看病中心”：日均70万外地患者赴京

日前，《瞭望》新闻周刊记者调研了解到，由于北京优质医疗卫生资源集中，大量外地人口进京看病就医，使北京三级医院不堪重负，也加剧了城市人口和交通负担，甚至被戏称为“全国看病中心”。有关人士建议，应以推进京津冀协同发展为契机，优化区域医疗资源布局，完善国家医疗服务体系，通过资源疏解、合作办医、完善医保等措施，加快提升河北等周边省市医疗服务水平，缓解首都就医压力。 [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.