Private clinics under pressure after student's death

By Chen Xia
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, May 5, 2016
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Private clinics funded by investors from Putian City in southeast China's Fujian Province have been under heavy pressure after a university student's death provoked public controversy over medical advertisements.

Ads for private clinics with investments from Putian are seen in Dongzhuang Town, Putian City, southeast China's Fujian Province. [File photo]

Ads for private clinics with investments from Putian are seen in Dongzhuang Town, Putian City, southeast China's Fujian Province. [File photo] 

 

Wei Zexi, a student at Xidian University in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, died from a rare cancer on April 12 after seeking treatment in the biological treatment center of the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps.

However, it later turned out that the center was only a private clinic in cooperation with the hospital and that the therapy Wei received was not as effective as it was advertised to be.

Since the majority of private clinics in China are funded by investors from Putian, the public began to wonder if Putian investments were involved in this case and became suspicious of the credibility of all clinics with Putian investments.

So far, Putian-funded clinics have seen a significant drop of patients and received many demands for refunds from old patients, causing great panic among shareholders. Lin Qi, who invested in a private clinic with his relatives, said that the clinic's revenue in the past few days has been less than half of what it usually is.

Putian is widely believed to be the birthplace of China's private medical services. In Xiuyu Disctrict of Putian City, around 10,000 companies are engaged in the medical industry. Their annual revenues total 305 billion yuan (US$46.91 billion).

 

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