At the same time, the patients faced strict controls from the hospitals that required them to follow a daily schedule and move within designated areas, the report said, and failure to comply with rules led to physical abuse.
The reporter said they had witnessed staff at multiple hospitals slapping the patients, hitting them with a water pipe and tying them to the bed.
Some were kept in hospital for years, while contact with the outside world was cut off. One patient at a hospital in Yichang told the reporter they “felt like they were in prison”.
The report triggered a public backlash, with many questioning whether this was a common phenomenon across China and raised fears that hospitals were failing to treat those who needed it, while others were needlessly kept in hospital.
Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily called for an investigation, saying: “The hospitals treat the healthcare insurance fund as a cake to be taken and used as they please, converting patients’ health conditions into figures in their accounting books … It’s not only a blatant defiance of the law but also tramples the bottom line of morality.”
It called for stricter regulatory measures and coordination between government departments to expose those behind the scam in Hubei, adding that this would set a good example for a national crackdown.
This article was first published on SCMP.
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