Police seek evidence of crimes at six hospitals

The public security bureau in Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture, Gansu province, is collecting evidence from the public about crimes at six local hospitals and urging suspects to surrender, according to a notice released on Saturday.

Xiehe Hospital, Boai Hospital, Modern Gynecology Hospital, Huashan Hospital, Tongji Hospital and Xinyangguang Andrology Hospital were found to have been engaged in many criminal activities including exaggerating patients' symptoms, illegally charging for items, falsifying medical records, allowing unqualified personnel to treat patients, extortion, and forcing patients to pay for extra services, the bureau said.

The bureau is carrying out the investigation as part of a special campaign to combat gang-related crime. The police have detained 25 suspects and are verifying details and conducting further investigations.

"To thoroughly investigate the facts of all crimes committed by the hospitals, we hereby encourage members of the public to report related clues and evidence," the bureau said.

"The police sternly urge those involved in the illegal activities at the six hospitals to surrender as soon as possible and honestly admit the facts of the crimes. The police will take resolute measures to arrest those who refuse to surrender and continue to operate illegal activities, and punish them according to law."

A report by ThePaper.cn said the hospitals have been punished before for a range of wrongdoing.

For example, Boai Hospital was fined 10,000 yuan ($1,446) by the local market supervision administration in 2015 for false advertising and fined another 1,000 yuan last year for illegal advertising.

Tongji Hospital was also punished for illegal advertising in 2015, as was Xiehe Hospital in 2017. The Modern Gynecology Hospital and Xiehe Hospital were punished by the drug administration last year for using expired disposable syringes and needles.

There have been many complaints on Chinese social media targeting the hospitals. A netizen said in March that a doctor at Huashan Hospital had increased the price for an operation and some complained about paying tens of thousands of yuan for treatment that failed to improve their health.

In May, local health commissions formed an inspection team to supervise the operation, medical services, quality management and disposal of medical waste at a number of the hospitals, Linxia television reported.

The team found the hospitals were using substandard medical equipment and hiring unqualified staff. On May 21, the local health commissions, the police and the market supervision administration launched a crackdown on illegal medical practices across the prefecture, Minzu Daily, a local newspaper, reported.

Crimes related to hospitals or other health and medical operators have been a key target of a nationwide campaign against gang-related crimes that was launched in March.

The National Health Commission launched the yearlong campaign to clamp down on medical malpractice including medical fraud, false advertising, unreasonable and illegal charges, and insurance fraud.

The health commission in Beijing said on Sunday that it will take further action against people scalping hospital appointments, interview the heads of hospitals including Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Beijing Tongren Hospital over the scalping issue, and assign 12 teams to conduct secret inspections of medical institutions.

Police in Xiamen, Fujian province, announced in May that they had busted a medical gang and arrested 20 suspects at a private hospital where patients were forced to pay for additional surgery.

The public security bureau in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, announced at a news conference in May that the police had solved six medical crime cases and detained 106 suspects.