Putting hospitals on the road to recovery

New funding measures being pioneered in East China may ease tensions between medical staff and patients, report Zhang Lei in Beijing and Yan Yiqi in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

On May 14, a man was hit by a taxi as he crossed the road in front of the City Central Hospital in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. As the victim lay motionless on the ground, police officers who had witnessed the accident rushed into the hospital to ask for help, but members of staff refused to admit the injured man, citing a lack of stretchers and ambulances.

After about 20 minutes, an ambulance from the Jinhua Fifth Hospital arrived at the scene, and the victim was taken there for treatment. According to China News, the doctors on duty were shocked that the man hadn't been treated at CCH and noted the irony of the situation. However, some observers suspected that the real reason the injured man was denied treatment at CCH was that he looked like a vagrant, and would therefore be unable to afford to pay medical bills.