Direct translation
Why are hospitals closing down in droves as the number of patients surges in mainland China?
Reporter : Ning Haizhong / Editor : Lin Congwen / https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/25/1/9/n14409532.htm / Image : People wearing masks wait at the respiratory outpatient clinic of a hospital in Beijing on 8 January 2025. (Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images)
Recently, multiple viruses have been prevalent in China, and tertiary hospitals across the country are crowded with patients. While medical resources are tight, a large number of small and medium-sized hospitals have gone bankrupt in the past year, including public hospitals, and the inside story has attracted attention.
Virus pandemic, hospitals overwhelmed with patients
From the end of 2024 to the beginning of 2025, Chinese influenza virus, human metapneumovirus and rhinovirus were prevalent at the same time. Tertiary hospitals in many places were overwhelmed, and the number of outpatient and emergency visits in hospitals increased significantly.
At the beginning of 2025, the news that "influenza overwhelmed tertiary hospitals" topped Baidu's hot search list. Various social media platforms in China are filled with news about respiratory virus outbreaks in various places. People are uploading short videos of patients waiting in long queues at hospitals, calling it like the "Spring Festival travel rush" but official media rarely reported on this.
Zhang Ye, director of the infectious department of a tertiary hospital in central China, told the Chinese industry media "Medical World" on 3 January 2025 that if the number of outpatient visits in early December 2024 is used as a benchmark, the number of outpatient visits in mid-December will nearly double, and now it is as high as 5 times. .
According to the National Acute Respiratory Infectious Diseases Sentinel Surveillance Report for Week 52 of 2024 released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, acute respiratory infectious diseases have generally shown a sustained and rapid upward trend in recent days, with influenza A virus, human metapneumovirus, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and COVID-19. Multiple viruses, including the covid virus, are spreading rapidly in China.
However, many netizens questioned that the so-called influenza A might be a variant of covid.
A blogger posted a video saying: "I have tried it for you. This is not H1N1. This is life-threatening. I am still not well on the sixth day. All my family members are sick. I am already devastated. It is worse than the COVID-19 that year. Too much misery." Another netizen said, "I feel this H1N1 flu is 10 times more severe than COVID-19."
Dr. Lin Xiaoxu, an American virology expert and former director of the Virology Laboratory at the U.S. Army Institute of Research, said on the "Health 1+1" program on 4 January 2025 that covid has not completely gone away and is still spreading. However, whether a new virus or a covid variant has appeared in China, because China's information is opaque, it is difficult for the outside world to understand the actual situation. There may be many more serious situations that the Chinese Communist Party government has not told you.
A large number of hospitals have closed down and public hospitals have also gone bankrupt
At the end of 2024, a Chinese blogger posted a video of an empty hospital after it closed down and wrote: "I always thought I would work here until I retired, but overnight, everything turned upside down. I once thought I could go back to where I was, but in the end, I couldn't resist. This is the reality. We have finally caught up with the trend of hospital bankruptcy. So let’s say goodbye! I hope the next stop is the end.”
Due to the spread of various viruses, or even epidemics of unknown viruses, China's medical resources are tight but a large number of hospitals have closed down prematurely.
"Sanlian Life Weekly" published an article on its WeChat public account on 6 January 6, stating that more than 1,200 records related to hospital bankruptcy in 2024 were found on the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network. Comparing this with the figures of 800 and 500 in 2023 and 2022 respectively, it can be seen that the number of hospital bankruptcies in China is increasing significantly. The article also said that in 2024, bankrupt hospitals will mainly be small and medium-sized private hospitals, with some public hospitals also included.
According to a report by "Medical Eye Observation" last year, Yu Xiaobao, vice president of the Private Hospital Management Branch of the Chinese Hospital Association, said that since the outbreak of the epidemic, more than 2,000 private hospitals have gone bankrupt due to operational difficulties. This figure is still rising.
According to official data from the Chinese Communist Party, the loss rate of public and private hospitals across the country has remained stable at around 45%. That is to say, nearly half of the country's hospitals are operating at a loss. In 2024 alone, more than 500 hospitals across the country have closed down, most of which are small and medium-sized private hospitals.
However, life in a public hospital is not as stable and worry-free as imagined. In recent years, rumours of wage arrears have frequently been reported in public hospitals in many places. For example, the Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Meizhou Jiaying University is a public comprehensive secondary hospital directly under the Meizhou Municipal Government. After 10 months of salary arrears, it finally announced the suspension of medical services in October 2024 and notified employees to resign. A staff member of the Meizhou Municipal Health and Family Planning Bureau responded to the media that Jiayi Affiliated Hospital is going to file for bankruptcy.
Data shows that the medical income of Jiayi Affiliated Hospital in 2023 was 31.5682 million yuan, a decrease of 12.2288 million yuan from the previous year, a decrease of 27.9%. The expenditures of Jiayi Affiliated Hospital mainly include personnel expenses and project expenses to maintain the normal operation of the institution. In 2020, Jiayi Affiliated Hospital upgraded and renovated areas such as the outpatient building and inpatient building. The estimated total investment of the project was approximately RMB 71.452 million.
The financial situation of the Meijiang District Government of Meizhou City, where Jiayi Affiliated Hospital is located, is not optimistic. Data shows that from January to September 2024, Meijiang District’s general public budget revenue was 482.23 million yuan, a decrease of 33.53 million yuan from the same period last year, a decrease of 6.5%.
Last year, medical staff from public hospitals such as the Shanwei People's Hospital in Guangdong and the Xinxiang Fourth People's Hospital in Henan were forced to collectively demand their wages due to long-term wage arrears.
Why are the hospitals closing down?
Can the closure of a large number of hospitals in China really be explained simply by tight capital chains and local financial constraints?
Blogger "Lao Ji Says Finance" analyzed in the video: Chinese hospitals have two sources of income. The first is fiscal subsidies but the finances of various places are not rich now; the second is the normal income generated by the hospital, which is simply medicine, profits and medical expenses.
"China has now entered a severely aging society. The demographic dividend is gone. There is not enough money in the medical insurance pool. If you are hospitalized, as long as you don't pay for it yourself, the government will strictly control it. The price of medicine is very low, and the profit is also very low. . Now many hospitals are expanding their facilities. However, the decline of every dynasty started with large-scale construction, and hospitals are no exception. Since the new building was built and renovated, the hospital’s funds have basically run out and it has encountered some difficulties. and often go bankrupt.”
Even if it did not go bankrupt, the hospital was no longer doing well. A blogger said that salary cuts in hospitals are just the beginning, and layoffs will be the highlight in 2025. A large number of medical staff will be laid off in the next year.
Chinese medical blogger "Chenbojun Medical Chat" predicted in a video program on 5 January 2025 that in 2025, Chinese hospitals will usher in a general wave of salary cuts and layoffs: "Hospital layoffs and salary cuts will become a normal practice in the future." …, the wave of losses in hospitals has not really arrived. Since the mask (COVID-19), almost all hospitals have entered a state of crazy expansion in 2021. Especially general hospitals and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, the number of projects approved is higher than in previous years. The number of high-rise buildings is rising rapidly, but most hospitals have not considered the operating costs behind them.
One netizen left a message saying: "We haven't received performance wages for half a year. The performance wages for August and September were paid the day before yesterday. The two-month vacation is about 4,000 yuan. I work in a Chinese medicine hospital that has just passed the third-level B grade. The medium-sized hospital the Lord is talking about…” “I can’t find a job. Hospitals recruit people under 30 years old, and I’m not even eligible to apply at over 30.” “It’s almost time here. Seven I haven’t received any salary for a month.” “My public tertiary hospital, which has no private elements, is also holding a meeting to lay off employees.”
Regarding the issue of a large number of hospital bankruptcies, Lin Xiaoxu, former director of the Virology Laboratory of the U.S. Army Research Institute, told Radio Free Asia that this is a direct sequelae of the Chinese Communist government's hollowing out of the medical insurance fund in the past few years: "Because of the early overdraft during the epidemic, these (medical insurance funds) have been used up. If there is no money in the medical insurance, many private hospitals will not be able to get reimbursed by the medical insurance. The private hospitals will collapse first, and the public hospitals will hold on if they have other ways.”
CCP China's medical system is chaotic and corrupt
The high costs of medical care, education and housing in China have squeezed out most of the income of ordinary Chinese people, which has not only greatly increased the pressure on people's lives, but also created a bottomless pit for medical expenses.
Professor Li Ling, a well-known medical scholar in Beijing, revealed in an interview that research results show that if China had implemented universal health insurance, it would have cost 800 billion yuan. Now medical expenditures have reached 9 trillion yuan but people still find it difficult and expensive to see a doctor. According to her statistics, the actual medical expenses borne by the Chinese people currently account for about 50% of the total treatment costs. In Western countries that have medical insurance, the state generally bears more than 90% of the cost, while individuals pay less than 10%. Now there are more than 100 countries in the world that have implemented universal health insurance, and the Chinese Communist Party government has the financial resources to implement universal health insurance but nothing was done.
Li Ling believes that the current Chinese medical system is in a state of disarray. One of the main reasons is that the government's investment in hospitals only accounts for 8% of the total revenue of the hospitals. Hospitals must make money on their own, so they conduct random tests and prescribe random drugs, and treat patients in any way they can to make money. Very common. The so-called public hospitals today are not social welfare institutions, but rather complete market economies. Of course, profit is their primary goal, so there is chaos and corruption everywhere. Nowadays, any chief physician may have assets worth hundreds of millions.
According to Sohu.com, 95% of the equipment in Chinese hospitals are imported from foreign countries, such as CT, ultrasound imaging, angiography, MRI and other equipment, which cost millions or tens of millions of yuan. The main sources of imports are the United States, Germany and Japan. The annual equipment purchase costs invested by hospitals may reach tens of billions of yuan.
The hospital management is extremely corrupt and they have engaged in massive corruption in the purchase of these equipment. According to mainland media reports, the price that the agent received from the manufacturer for a digital angiography system was 5.79 million yuan, and the contract price sold to the hospital was 11.7 million yuan, which is double the price. An American brand colour blood flow imaging system was sold to the hospital for 980,000 yuan, and the kickback to the hospital director was as high as 100,000 yuan. A Korean-made three-dimensional multifunctional colour Doppler ultrasound diagnostic instrument was sold to the hospital for more than 1.6 million yuan but the bribe given to the hospital director was as high as 300,000 yuan.
Starting from 2023, the CCP has launched a major anti-corruption campaign in the medical field and confiscated the wealth of corrupt officials. Official information shows that at least more than 320 medical and health officials were investigated in 2024, including more than 160 hospital directors or secretaries. Wang Maosheng, director of Gaozhou People's Hospital in Guangdong Province, received kickbacks totaling more than 200 million yuan over the years.
In 1995, Hsiao Ching-lun, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, led a team of experts to help Taiwan design the current national health insurance system, which has achieved free medical care for all, making it the envy of many people in mainland China. According to a previous report by Voice of America, Xiao Qinglun believes that if it is under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, mainland China cannot replicate the Taiwan model. The Chinese Communist Party government has never paid enough attention to people's medical care, and unfair resource allocation and medical ethics corruption have made the problem worse.
Regarding the Chinese Communist Party government's anti-corruption campaign in the medical field, Xiao Qinglun said that this is a moral problem caused by the system and that campaign-style anti-corruption can only have a temporary effect. He said, "When you push health care into the market, basically every doctor and every hospital director is looking for ways to make money. The moral concept of medicine is to serve the people and the patients, but the problem in Communist China is that doctors and hospital leaders are all looking for ways to earn money.”
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