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Tuesday 14 April 2009
Migrant workers likely to visit illegal clinics despite deaths
Uninsured migrant workers are still likely to visit illegal clinics in Beijing even though fellow workers have died in such places, according to state media.
Migrant workers likely to visit illegal clinics despite deaths
Fiona Tam 14 April 2009
Uninsured migrant workers are still likely to visit illegal clinics in Beijing even though fellow workers have died in such places, according to state media.
A survey of 100 construction workers had found that more than 85 per cent would visit illegal clinics in their neighbourhoods if they fell ill because they were not able to afford public hospitals, The Beijing News reported yesterday.
The random survey followed the death of Shanxi migrant worker Lu Baojun, 37, last month after he received a blood transfusion at an unregistered clinic in central Beijing.
Authorities have since clamped down on more than 260 uncertified health care practitioners in the city.
Most workers said they were aware that some doctors they consulted did not have licences, but their priority was affordable health care.
The vast majority of mainland migrant workers are not covered by the nation’s basic medical insurance system - the subject of last week’s long-awaited 850 billion yuan (HK$965 billion) reform plan.
Official numbers showed that fewer than 42 million, or 19 per cent, of the country’s more than 220 million migrant workers have been provided statutory health insurance by their employers, and labour authorities have done little to clamp down on unscrupulous bosses.
Beijing law enforcement authorities said unlicensed clinics and pharmacies had been shut down to safeguard migrant workers’ health, but migrant workers said they had lost the last of the health services they could afford.
“I don’t dare visit public hospitals. It cost me more than 200 yuan to cure a fever at a district hospital early this year, equal to my monthly living costs,” one worker said. “Many illegal clinics were shut down recently, but [we believe] unlicensed practitioners won’t intentionally kill their patients. Sick workers now need to nose into dark corners for uncertified doctors.”
Illegal clinics are popular. When he was arrested last month, one uncertified practitioner in Beijing claimed to have a database of more than 1,000 patients who had come to him in the course of less than 15 months, local newspapers reported.
Doctors in public hospitals are notorious for prescribing expensive or unnecessary medications to increase profits, and most public hospitals rely on profits from ordering expensive medical tests to cover operating expenses. These policies disadvantage poor migrant workers.
Zhong Nanshan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who is a government health consultant, warned that the recent huge plan for health care may not make drugs affordable for more people.
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Migrant workers likely to visit illegal clinics despite deaths
Fiona Tam
14 April 2009
Uninsured migrant workers are still likely to visit illegal clinics in Beijing even though fellow workers have died in such places, according to state media.
A survey of 100 construction workers had found that more than 85 per cent would visit illegal clinics in their neighbourhoods if they fell ill because they were not able to afford public hospitals, The Beijing News reported yesterday.
The random survey followed the death of Shanxi migrant worker Lu Baojun, 37, last month after he received a blood transfusion at an unregistered clinic in central Beijing.
Authorities have since clamped down on more than 260 uncertified health care practitioners in the city.
Most workers said they were aware that some doctors they consulted did not have licences, but their priority was affordable health care.
The vast majority of mainland migrant workers are not covered by the nation’s basic medical insurance system - the subject of last week’s long-awaited 850 billion yuan (HK$965 billion) reform plan.
Official numbers showed that fewer than 42 million, or 19 per cent, of the country’s more than 220 million migrant workers have been provided statutory health insurance by their employers, and labour authorities have done little to clamp down on unscrupulous bosses.
Beijing law enforcement authorities said unlicensed clinics and pharmacies had been shut down to safeguard migrant workers’ health, but migrant workers said they had lost the last of the health services they could afford.
“I don’t dare visit public hospitals. It cost me more than 200 yuan to cure a fever at a district hospital early this year, equal to my monthly living costs,” one worker said. “Many illegal clinics were shut down recently, but [we believe] unlicensed practitioners won’t intentionally kill their patients. Sick workers now need to nose into dark corners for uncertified doctors.”
Illegal clinics are popular. When he was arrested last month, one uncertified practitioner in Beijing claimed to have a database of more than 1,000 patients who had come to him in the course of less than 15 months, local newspapers reported.
Doctors in public hospitals are notorious for prescribing expensive or unnecessary medications to increase profits, and most public hospitals rely on profits from ordering expensive medical tests to cover operating expenses. These policies disadvantage poor migrant workers.
Zhong Nanshan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, who is a government health consultant, warned that the recent huge plan for health care may not make drugs affordable for more people.
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