CEO: Irregularities afoot in health exams

A healthcare company's founder's comments on irregularities in the industry has aroused public debate among Chinese social media.

Zhang Ligang, founder and CEO of iKang Healthcare Group, said Sunday at the China Entrepreneur Summit "some institutions just throw away the blood samples without conducting tests."

"They give the results (directly) because only three in every 1,000 people might get cancer, which means an error rate that is within the margin of error," he said.

Due to these low rates, some institutions were falsifying test results, Zhang said.

Zhang said some enterprises only chose cheap health institutions for their employees, not paying attention to the quality. "The problem is you do not know if the doctor doing an ultrasound scan is a doctor or a nurse."

Zhang did not reveal which institutions were indulging in such behaviors, and he did not provide any evidence to back his claim, but his comments nevertheless aroused public debate.

A Weibo user nicknamed Tuoshuimeiguixie said "considering the situation, do we really have to take part in health examinations for employees? It wastes time and energy." Weibo is the Chinese Twitter-like platform.

Weibo user Lengyanmoran said this poses a risk. Established health institutions would hire experienced retired doctors, even at high salary, but since checkups are low-priced, many institutions cut corners.

Another Weibo user Rulinxiaoshuchong asked people not to compare the slipshod institutions with regular hospitals, as health checkups offered by some companies are just pro forma.

So far, no institution has commented on Zhang's claims.

In recent years, a lot of private companies have entered the healthcare sector and offered heath checkups to companies.