了解医疗行业背后的问题

医院（hospital）一词来自拉丁文原意为“客人”，因为最初设立时，是供人避难，还备有娱乐节目，使来者舒适，有招待意图。后来，才逐渐成为收容和治疗病人的专门机构。

No matter what, people just do not accept doctors, deemed as angels to save lives, to take bribes or kickbacks for what they do to cure patients. However, in reality, this more often than not happens in front of our eyes despite it is unquestionably against moral standards.

Some of those doctors, however, argue that they are left with no choice but to give in when it becomes a common practice.

Low pay positions for many medical practitioners in increasingly expensive cities is one reason to blame but it is not all. On the patient's side, there are those who believe money is the key to secure a doctor's care.

Still, since state funds account for just some 10 percent of what a hospital needs to operate, expensive or over priced medicines became what hospitals resort to. Some doctors took money to prescribe those drugs.

A senior doctor in a well-known hospital in Beijing, speaking under anonymity, further explains.

"Ubiquitous kickbacks can be ascribed to two reasons. First, the evaluation system is in tatters. The public is thrilled to see doctors cure patients at a bare minimum cost, but not many doctors want to do this. Obviously, the evaluation system is broken. If the doctors try their best to minimize patients' expenses, few hospitals could survive and few doctors could get a sufficient income. Secondly, problems also occur in the supply line in which manufacturers of medicines or medical facilities provide their products and services. We have hundreds even thousands of manufacturers produce the same type of medicine, each vying for a deal with the hospital through whatever channel they may have...procurement office or even individual doctors."

Besides, public attitude towards offering bribes formed over many years of ill practice also fuels the wrong doing among medical practitioners.

A patient's family member in Beijing says it is an unfortunate fact that people choose to believe in the old saying -- money makes the mare go.

"The surgeon and anesthetist are critical to the success of the operation. As the family member, I used to bribe the doctors for fear of anything going wrong with the operation. Bribe-giving is quite common."

The government has been trying to curb the trend in the medical community for years including adopting universal pricing for medicines, but anything in this effort has yet to materialize and take real effect.

For CRI, I'm Zhao Jianfu.