Beijing hospitals hit hard financially

Straits Times ^ | June 2

[DeaconBenjamin]

BEIJING - Hospitals in Sars-hit regions of China are reeling financially after the government turned some general hospitals into Sars-only treatment centres and ordered free treatment for cash-strapped locals, state press said yesterday.

Beijing's Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital has seen its monthly income of some 42 million yuan (S$9 million) drop to next to nothing since it was ordered to become a Sars-only hospital in early April, the China Business newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, the hospital spent enormous sums on new equipment to treat Sars patients, sanitation materials to protect medical staff from infection and the building of new quarantine areas, hospital administrator Dong Liyou told the paper.

Hospital expenses topped nearly 110 million yuan in April and May, with new medical equipment totalling over 50 million yuan.

In Taiyuan city in northern Shanxi province, where another outbreak of Sars took place, the People's Hospital, another Sars-designated facility, saw its average monthly income of 15 million yuan fall to two million yuan last month, the paper reported.

Beijing's Tiantan Hospital, a non-Sars hospital, saw its average daily outpatient visits fall from 3,000 to less than 800 a day last month, while losing more than 10 million yuan in inpatient fees, it said.

Affected hospitals are hoping to get reimbursed by the government in the future, the paper reported.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Toronto's aren't exactly flourishing either.