To see a doctor at most hospitals in China, patients must first register (挂号, gua hao, “get a number”). At the hospitals with the best reputations, there is more demand than supply. As a result, people must line up to register, and there are many unscrupulous people [票贩子, piao fan zi, ticket scalpers or touts] who will try to register first and then sell their registration to other people later for a profit.
The above video is a news report of the crowd of people waiting behind gates for a hospital to open. When the gates open, they all rush to get registration numbers. Most of the people rushing at the front of the crowd are ticket scalpers and it is apparent that the slower people near the back are people who actually themselves need to use the hospital’s services.
Comments on NetEase:
xu19680930:
A real-name registration system should be quickly implemented, the key is to crack down on ticket scalpers!
jia.qingxu:
How sad, truly truly saddening.
kè屍魡漁:
If not a single person buys registration numbers from the [registration] ticket scalpers, it would not be this crowded.
dds5433:
Would a real-name registration system work? Anyone who has been sick and has gone to a good hospital have all had to go two or more times to get a number [get registered] because the outpatient department definitely will not have any numbers/space the first time you go. In front of the hospital are a bunch of ticket scalpers, asking you if you want to buy a number/registration. If you want, then you have to go apply for an outpatient department card and tomorrow he will get you a number before you pay him money. It is no use. The only thing left is to reform China’s health care system.
hzh-hyw000:
The root [of the problem] is benefits!! These people who are ticket scalpers are also relying on their physical strength/energy for a livelihood!!! If they all had jobs with reliable incomes, would they do this??? Additionally, why do you not consider for a moment that people, no matter how serious their ailment, all want to come to these large hospitals??
dds5433:
The best few hospitals in every province are all like this. You guys are shocked only because you have never seen it before. I have experienced this before at Chengdu’s Huaxi Hospital. Registration begins at 7am, over 20 windows. I arrive at 6:30am, and the lines there are just like the Spring Festival chunyun [the terrible big crowds of Chinese people trying to go home during Chinese New Year/Spring Festival].
kiss-p:
Hospitals are places that kill you and expect a thanks. Last time I was at the Zhongshan Hospital in Guangzhou for a kidney stone, an x-ray/CT-scan and an IV was 500 yuan. In the end, there were no results.
喜羊羊灰太狼:
Only SB line up. At our hospital here, simply paying 100 or 50 [RMB] and you do not need to line up, and moreover you can get looked at first.
jxchuangtian:
An ugly society always nakedly reveals its reality.
macoma:
Even if [Usain] Bolt were there, he could not beat them [the ticket scalpers].
Comments from Ku6:
酷6网友 [Ku6 netizen (guest)]:
This is not a hospital, it is obviously a track field.
酷6网友:
In this mysterious country, there is already nothing that can surprise me! Anything is possible!
酷6网友:
What does this have to do with the hospital? This is a national system problem.
酷6网友:
The registration system should be abolished.
酷6网友:
There should not be registrations. If you are sick, line up. If you are not, then get lost.
酷6网友:
It doesn’t matter what we use, it will be no use. China simply has too many people. If you make too many babies, the consequences are your own to deal with.
酷6网友:
Without looking, [I know] it is a hospital in Xiangya. I have experienced it personally, and am used to it. Notice the guards at the front door. This kind of scene they have already seen many times it is not strange to them. They are very calm.
酷6网友:
Strongly crack down on ticket scalpers. Protect the people’s right to fair medical attention/treatment, according to the order of who arrived first, relying on personal identification for registration, and when seeing patients, instruct the nurses to always check the registrations tickets/papers with the patients’ personal identification.
Have you used a hospital in China before? My experiences have been okay most of the time. What were your experiences?
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Spring Festival Train Ticket Lines In Ningbo & Xian 
Beijing Railway Station Employee Ticket Scalping? 
Migrant Worker Cannot Pay Hospital, Doctor Suffers 
Audi Lady Blocks Hospital Entrance After Parking Quarrel 
Holy shit look at them run!
god i am right behind you.. touching you arse. my cock is swelling.. ohhhhhh….. its great to be second!
Great yellow master race = homosexual
pssss.. Righteous American is a girl.
Then you must be a girl also.
the great yellow master race is a evil master that makes me suffer all sorts of perverted “punishments” as he calls them. broomstick, frozen hotdog, bullwhip handle, his stiff thumb, basically whatever lying nearby – all get jammed into me repeatedly day and night. Man, give me a rest for once.
sorry about that.. live with it.
At least your honest.
I’m gonna have all my anhui friends queue up in front of McDonalds for slots and sell them to the stupid, spoiled, fat little chinese kids. I’m also going to punch their uncivilized bitch of a mother because she has her *ucking dirty elbow jabbed in my back.
Definitely a +1.
This is what people are afraid of in the United States with medical reform.
This is what someone *wants* them to be afraid of, but has nothing to do with the reality in Canada/France/Britain/Etc… Just about every western country has a functional health insurance system with acceptable insurance premium and good service for everyone, except the US. How can anyone with half a brain believe that propaganda.
I don’t think that hospitals in the United States will ever devolve into what qualifies as a hospital in China.
Chinese people would sell their dead mother. Now that is socialism with Chinese characteristics
whats wrong with hat? you will sell your children just for another nuclear powered ipod.
Nuclear powered ipod?
god i am right behind you.. touching you arse. my cock is swelling.. ohhhhhh….. its great to be right behind you!
I’m not a girl or a homo.
Take your fully erect 2-inch penis somewhere else.
And I would happily sell your dead mother as well, during Weekend bigot specials.
Who would want to buy his shitty dead mother?
Kevin, do you want to sell you mother to me a Chinese? I hopes she is still alive, when you bring it to my hand.
Does anyone else find it odd that the hospital works like a train station?
be happy it works.
You are right… why try to fix it or make it better? Just be happy with crap because we are lucky to have it!!!
i see you got the mainpoint of living with Capitalism finaly..
China is capitalist?
It works? Seriously? I have to believe that you’re being sarcastic there, because otherwise you clearly did not watch the video.
That video disgusts me. People so greedy for money that they’re taking advantage of sick people. Totally, completely despicable. Anyone who thinks that is a “working” system, clearly needs to buy himself a ticket and get his brain scanned.
lol.. seriously you just described the whole health care system in USA..
But, by Chinese “logic”, only Americans can criticize and understand the American healthcare system.
I don’t know enough about the health care system in the US to comment on that, but I’m sure it’s better than what we saw in that video.
Why go to a hospital anyway?
Everyone knows that drinking hot water cures everything!
There really isnt anything to say about these selfish Chinese anymore. I’m so tired of the selfish bastards with the me me me attitude. I just dont give a shit anymore, let them screw each other over. I just hope that no innocent foreigners get caught up in it.
Tommy…I am with you 100%.
I am totally giving up on these selfish people and going back to the USA in a few months.
I don’t care about them anymore either…let them screw each other over, and talk about how much they hate Japan and how Taiwan is a part of China, blah blah blah.
Meanwhile, I’ll be enjoying my middle-class life in the USA…away from the noise and pollution and staring and hatred.
Any room in your suitcase?
I say: approach the ticket scalpers pretending to buy their ticket, and then break their arm. They will have a broken arm, no profit for the day, and the worst mood ever.
My (American) wife and I experienced this truly horrific “system” first hand at the supposedly top maternity teaching hospital in all China, Peking Union. To get a government-mandated amniocentesis test, we had to organise to line up at 4am three separate mornings, just to beat the scalpers and have the great honour of getting one of just 20 appointments given out each day. We had no choice: the government forbids all other hospitals in Beijing to administer this test, which is commonplace in the west. With the daily rush, and the extremely high fees, its a great little earner for the government.
Is that because it can tell you the gender of the so wanted child?
gotta actually applaud the gov’t this time for this dick move, you know those dickweeds would have an abortion instantly if they knew their only child would be female
No. The test tells women over the age of 35 if their fetus has Down’s Syndrome.
It’s obvious that the great yellow master race’s mother never took this test….otherwise she could have spared this website a lot of retarded comments.
I love comments like this: “Only SB line up. At our hospital here, simply paying 100 or 50 [RMB] and you do not need to line up, and moreover you can get looked at first.”
Only SB don’t realize if everyone is “paying 100 or 50″ then suddenly the ‘100 or 50′ line up becomes equal to the existing 2-3 kuai line up or whatever, and the hospital simply opens up a higher tier of service. Then suddenly it’s “Only SB line up. At our hospital here, simply paying 1500 or 500 rmb and you do not need to line up”, supply and demand muthafucka. Too bad he can’t read this and it’s a wasted post. I’m sure he’d have a reply similar in the likes of Yellow Master Race’s ludicrous attempts to push buttons.
By your logic it seems there would be some equilibrium price where quantity supplied and demanded are equal as less people would be willing to pay as opposed to waiting in line, the price will not keep growing unchecked.
As for the real problem, there are plenty of horrific anecdotes, it’s not any particular hospital or region or even limited to the medical professions. Today doctor, teachers, and policemen are almost dirty words as widespread failures and absence of watchdog entities.
oops, spasm.
I meant to say failures abound while absence of watchdog entities provide no incentive means there is no real pressure for change.
You missed my point.
I was referring to the point he labels those who don’t pay the premium as SBs, when in fact, it’s likely a financial reason. If it were not a financial reason, then the number of people paying the premium would essentially turn it into the ‘base’, and a new premium would be created.
you are right, I misunderstood.
This poster was actually referring to a VIP card that you can purchase that guarantees you a registration number. Of course, you have to register a few days in advance though. btw, selfish chinese can suck my dogs dick.
If (USA) CNN, the national news in Japan, France, Germany, England, and all of Europe ran this video for a week, the Chinese Government would “lose face.”
Then, maybe, it would make an effort to organize a more efficient way to see a doctor.
This same government can organize hundreds of thousands of people to rehearse for the National Day Parade or put on the Olympics with few flaws. The Chinese can arrange a reasonable hospital check-in if they want to. It’s simple, they don’t want to.
why should the show such misery? it will only help chinese to reform their hospitals…
And that’s a bad thing?
You don’t want China to improve and achieve first-world status?
I don’t know enough about the health care system in the US to comment on that, but I’m sure it’s better than what we saw in that video.
Basically everything in the US is better than what I’ve encountered in China.
I’m sorry if that sounds ethnocentric but America really does outrock China in pretty much every category.
And, for the record, I don’t have “America #1″ mentality at all.
I think America could learn a lot from Western Europe when it comes to healthcare.
Most hospitals in China, though crowded, are nothing like this. For every packed hospital with crazy rock concert crowds, there are several more where people are civil and the guards aren’t gawking impotent morons.
So why do people bother going to this one? Is it to do with how modern it is and the rate of patient survival?
You know how people follow crowds… I wouldn’t exactly rate the quality of any business’ service or product by the size of stampeding crowds at the door. That would mean Wal-mart sells the best stuff and has the best service.
I posted my most awesome China hospital experience on my blog here. Warning: It’s literally shitty.
I’m english and lived in Wuxi for a year. I broke my foot and had to hop into the number 1 hospital to get an xray.
id read an really interesting report about the state of CHinese hospital done by IBM for the Chinese governemnt so i was ready for the worst..
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/imc/pdf/g510-6268-healthcare-china.pdf
after getting my ticket for about 8yuan (cheap enough and no queue for me) i went to a bunch of rooms to find a doctor.
inside one room was a load of really sick people all pushing in to see a doctor sat at a table. it seemed unless u pushed in you weren’t going to be seen but being english i couldnt bring myself to do this.. so i played the foreign card (sorry china). The doctor saw me and was immediately interested hehe. i told him in broken Chinese what i thought was wrong and what did he do?? Squeezed my foot as hard as he could!!!! OUCH!!
He then spoke the only English word he knew: “Congratulations” haha, it was indeed broken!
Upstairs for an xray then back down for a cast (which he did for free for some reason, perhaps he felt a little guilty by the earlier assault). then i had to hop to a taxi and home.. no crutches!!
This wasn’t a bad experience overall. we don’t have to pay in england, but I’ve been to accident and emergency and you can wait 4 hours to be seen in our not so super NHS system.
the doctor was far from professional compared with ours, but he was quite funny so I didn’t mind. me and my friend both asked after if he really was a doctor haha!
the hospital was scarily dirty and sick people we all far too close for my liking. I covered my face with my sleeve so as not to get sprayed on by a nearby flu victim.
lots of improvement needed but overall not the scary experience i was expecting. i think the average salary for a doctor in england is 108,000 GBP sometimes moving up to 250,000 in london. Is it true in china the doctors are on a really low wage in comparison to other professions?
—-I’m english and lived in Wuxi for a year.—
i hate you…
Come on, give me a thumbs up. I know you are laughing.
I’m sure he’ll stick his thumb up your butt.
my stick is busy with your butt already.
I am a canadian medical doctor working in china, i had a female doctor bragging that she made 10,000 rmb each month as a top paid doctor ($1400) She wanted to know what canadian doctors got paid, i explained i got about $45,000 CAD, about 315,000 rmb, she could not even manipulate the number and convert dollars to kuai.
I have been to the hospital 6 times in china. There is almost no point in going. My mother has more medical knowledge than most of their doctors. I, as a personal trainer and coach, have more anatomy knowledge and can diagnose simple injuries better than most of the people that work there.
My friend was told by a chinese doctor that his heart arrhythmia was because of the wind.
I have been told that “Americans are fat because they drink cold water” by a doctor.
There is no point in seeing a chinese doctor or nurse.
Abbie you are 100% correct.
Going to a hospital in China is completely pointless.
Wouldn’t these scalpers be greatly reduced if the hospitals simply required that an ID be shown when registering?
Granted, scalping could still happen but much less frequently.
A four year-old with half a brain could have thought of that…
What you’re overlooking is that a four-year-old with half a brain in any other country is still smarter than your average Chinese piece of shit. China survives by completely flooding the country and earth with people. It works the odds…1 in 10 of those people will be smart and useful enough…the rest can be left to rot.
statistically unlikely
The only statistically proven system for the Chinese is genocide. Who wants to be the leader? A big, black guy would be enough to steer them into the gas chambers.
Feel free to give me a thumbs down for this one. I’m going to.
Did you read the translated Chinese netizen comments? More than a few people mentioned the same thing. It does seem like a very simple reform that would yield some improvement, but we’re left to speculate that there are enough people in the government who don’t give a shit enough to try or have an interest in not reforming the current system.
What an unscrupulous method to earn money by queuing up & selling the queue slots.
i am shocked and appaled to hear chinese people are lowlife pieces of shit who find new ways to cheat others off their money every day.
SHOCKED!!!!
I would have been shocked several years ago before I came to China….now I just expect Chinese people to always choose the most selfish route in any situation.
i was being ironic -_-
Ahh, you’ve obviously spent time in China.
Man, how low do you have to be to actually scalp tickets at a HOSPITAL?
Chinese people are so ridiculous.
your momma is ridiculous
No, but his momma’s momma was definitely ridiculous.
Ahh, “your momma” jokes….typical Chinese “wit”.
Reminds me of third grade in America….so these two clowns must be in their mid-30s.
yep, lived there for 2 years.. never met anything like the chinese and i have been to lot of 3rd world countries.
i wouldnt even say they are really human.
Sounds like a cultural (seriously how low can you get?)/healthcare infrastructure issue, not one specifically of the hospitals.
How low can you get?
In China, there is NO LIMIT!!
I’m chinese man and you say make me hurt in my heart.
China country 5000 years history. America tiny little fly, eat by my turtle.
Yeah, we know…China is 5000 years old and still developing….America is about 200 years old and is way more developed and advanced than China.
Good job.
ahyes, the 5000 year myth, that is like saying the north
american indians have 60,000 years of history as bones that old have been found.
china has 60 years of history, was not china before. was a warring mess
@Abbie
“I have been to the hospital 6 times in china. There is almost no point in going. My mother has more medical knowledge than most of their doctors. ”
You and your mom display sign of Hypochondriasis. This doc from hell made correct diagonsis on you.
Hell, you display signs of stupidity and inferiority.
Hell = China
WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0vEYy2oQxHs/Sl6tQwMyLJI/AAAAAAAABVI/pfP9tv8WrA8/s320/5493_103690264164_793034164_1991081_2989686_n.jpg
I clicked on the link but it appears to be blocked.
Why are you laughing? Is it a pic of your ding-dong?
Probably not, cuz in that case he would have used tinyurl.
boom bada bing
WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH like the Chinese water? Is it better than Evian? Never had it before, please advise.
Heaven = schizophrenia. You display every sign of it. Another correct diagnosis.
This is Obamacare in action
You think there will be ticket scalpers in American hospitals because of Obama?
Please explain.
do not feed the troll.
I wasn’t talking to you.
hm.. i should stop to feed you troll too..
Are you sure this is a hospital? It looks like people going to a soccer game and those are hooligans… :)
I happen to like China. On a one to one basis people are generally very nice and kind. The country has a fascinating past, an exciting present and great potential for the future. Living in China, it really feels like you are somewhere where things are happening, and there is never a dull moment.
But the health care system (an extreme example of which is on display here) is one of the reasons why I left China and won’t be going back except for holidays.
Hell’s job is to crew heaven
This is what happens when you combine public health care with unelected officials: no accountability.
I assume the private facilities are much better?
no, they are not
The US has it bad, but China has just a fucking appalling healthcare system
There are just absolutely moronic doctors who suck money out of patients (went into hospital with tonsillitis and he wanted to give me FOUR bags of IV drip. Total cost RMB 800) For infected tonsils? He even said I may have to stay the night (RMB 750). I just told him to fucking prescribe some antibiotics and he said they were bad for the body and I was too weak to take them. I shouted and went to the next hospital and just demanded antibiotics. Again they wanted me to go on the IV drip. Eventually he gave some antibiotics (Which I picked myself from a list!!!!) and also tried to prescribe my some Chinese medicine (RMB 110) to go with it. I crossed off the Chinese medicine using a pen myself and went to the counter and just demanded the antibiotics.
All hospitals are filthy no matter how much you pay (apart from Expat catering ones) with sick patients lying on the floor, doctors are just useless and are only skilled at giving you expensive treatments you don’t need, after every blood test, check, you go to the counter to pay like it’s a supermarket and the attitudes of everyone working in the hospital are just so unbelievably fucking rude. I would rather walk to pudong airport on a broken leg to get a flight overseas then go to a local hospital again
cmon. tell us how you REALLY feel,,
The NHS is the only thing that makes me proud to be British. We take it for granted but the Chinese Leaders could follow it’s ways if they still want to call themselves socialists. There is so much to learn yet.
The problem with the healthcare system in China is more far reaching than in the West. In the West, some believe that a national healthcare system, much like the one payer system in Canad and the UK, is a good answer. Not true, both Canada and the UK still have massive problems with their health care system, albeit different problems than the ones currently at the haert of the American health care system. The real solution can be acheived by looking at the real problem – supply and demand. There are simply too many people who need to be treated and too few healthcare professionals. Although it would take about 20 years, the best way to tackle the problem is incentives for students to enter the medical field. More grants, forgiveness of student loans for students who graduate from medical school or nursing school, no reduction in retirement payments for former doctors and surgeons who re-enter the teaching field, etc. Flood the market with doctors, surgeons, nurses, and a modern infrastructure of hospitals and clinics and people could afford medical treatment or at least medical insurance on their own. It reminds me of when i was young and I ran into some legal trouble, a lawyer back then wouldn’t take a case unless he had his fee up front. Now, the marketplace is so overloaded with lawyers that they try to make shit up just to give themselves work. Now, most lawyers work on retainers, small downpayments, and the total fees have gone down dramatically since then. As for the Chinese health system: doctors and nurses, as well as government officails, wont care about the people, healthy or sick, until the people start to care about one another. A society with no moral center can have no moral institutions.
you are ignorant, maybe you could point out the massive problems in canada, we were just ranked number 5 by the UN and america was ranked 19th.
you have no understanding of how health care works,you need competent doctors to train doctors, i have worked in china for 3 years, their doctors are worse by far than africa, central and south america, the caribbean and india, all countries i have worked in
they are corrupt, uneducated, ignorant and dirty
The problem with China is that they want to see the famous doctors so they choose the one hospital that has them, Foreigners dont know this and usually end up going to any hospital thats near by and think its not as packed as I tought. People even flood in from other cities to see these so call Doctors.