Govt should invest more in public hospitals: Expert

A renowned medical expert suggested on Monday that the government should invest more in public hospitals to deepen healthcare reform.

Public hospitals only get about 25 percent of their expenses from the government and, as a result, most have to make profits through various methods including prescribing expensive drugs and doing unnecessary checks for patients, said Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Guangdong province.

Zhong, also a deputy to the National People's Congress, said at a news conference during the NPC session that most public hospitals make their top priority profits, rather than the public's interests and needs.

He suggested in a motion this year that public hospitals should be financed by public funds to ensure the people benefit from medical reform, Zhong told reporters.

Even though China has established a healthcare system that covers most people, the medical reform is not successful, he said.

Many doctors spent less than three minutes with each patient as they have to see as many patients as possible each day to make a profit for the hospital, he added.

It remains difficult and expensive for people to see a doctor, the relationship between patients and doctors has not improved and the evaluation system for medical workers cannot stimulate their enthusiasm, Zhong said.

On Oct 25, a doctor was killed and two others injured by a dissatisfied patient at a hospital in East China's Zhejiang province.