Hospital reaches settlement after accusations of 'liver fee' for transplant

A doctor surnamed Wang from the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University denies charging a so-called "liver fee" in cash before a liver transplant in 2018, The Paper reported on Tuesday.

The patient's son, surnamed Jiang, said that his father, diagnosed with viral hepatitis, was transferred to the hospital on Aug 14, 2018 for a liver transplant. In addition to the medical costs, the doctor treating Jiang's father demanded a 200,000 yuan ($27,000) liver fee in cash and refused to issue a receipt. Due to a lack of funds, Jiang only managed to scrape together 100,000 yuan and gave it to the doctor.

"The hospital told me that the success rate of the operation is more than 90 percent. However, my father died on Aug 19, 2018 after the transplant," Jiang added.

After his father's death, Jiang took the hospital to court, but lost the case.

On Aug 10, the hospital told The Paper that it's impossible to receive cash.

However, based on a recording, Jiang said the hospital did accept the cash and they told him that they had donated the "liver fee" to the organ donor family via the red cross society, which the charity disavowed on Monday.

Finally, the hospital reached a settlement with Jiang in 2021 and gave him 98,000 yuan by another name.

Recently, China launched an anti-corruption campaign on the medical sector. By Aug 12, at least 175 hospital directors and party sectaries had been under investigation, medical media outlet Saibailan reported on Aug 12.