2 Beijing hospitals now offer surgical insurance

Beijing's You'an Hospital and Anzhen Hospital have started to offer surgical insurance programs, following an increasing number of medical disputes.

Since Jan 24, patients being treated in the departments of surgery, interventional therapy and obstetrics at You'an Hospital can purchase a surgical accident insurance by paying 300 yuan ($48) to 4,500 yuan, to be insured for death or surgical complications during procedures or observation afterwards.

"Some surgical accidents are caused by individual health conditions instead of medical malpractice, such as when the patient is very old or when they have some kind of allergy that we didn't know about beforehand. As a result, the company running the medical liability insurance doesn't pay for these accidents," said Yang Yu, director of the hospital's patient-doctor relationship office.