China has one general practitioner for every 6,666 people, compared with the international standard of one for every 1,500 to 2,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.
It's so difficult to get an appointment with a doctor that scalpers make a living doing it.In July, hundreds of thousands of children were found to have been injected with faulty vaccines.
Instead of going to a doctor’s office or a community clinic, people rush to the hospitals to see specialists, even for fevers and headaches.
This winter, flu-stricken patients camped out overnight with blankets in the corridors of several Beijing hospitals.
People bribe doctors to get an appointment.
A typical doctor sees 50 to 60 patients in a workday of about seven and a half hours. In the United States, a family doctor has 83 “patient encounters” in a 45-hour workweek.
Hospitals have become battlegrounds. At least one hospital has hired taekwondo experts to teach doctors self-defense techniques. Some hospitals pay private security companies for protection. Last year, the government pledged to station an adequate number of police officers in emergency departments, where most doctor-patient violence occurs.
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