China's bid to end bribery for doctors opens debate

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-25 21:31

Min said her monthly income was about 2,000 yuan (about US$294), which included both salary and bonus. "With such a salary, living in Beijing is not easy."

Another young surgeon from a big state-run Beijing hospital told Xinhua that his salary was roughly the same as Min. "Do you believe it? I earn 3 yuan for one appendectomy," the surgeon surnamed Wu said.

Wu said he believed the problem of commercial bribery in medicine circulation was "one of the system rather than one of doctors".

"I think the government should increase funding to public hospitals and raise the salary of medical staff so that hospitals and doctors don't need to look for other ways to solve income problems," he said.

Li Ling, professor of the Peking University, said China's medical reform in the past two decades, which was market-oriented, was "not right".

"Indeed, since doctors and hospitals rely more on profits, they have come to rely on medicine sales for the bulk of their revenues," she said.

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