News of pay cuts for healthcare professionals has been frequently circulated. Some hospitals even cut bonuses in half, despite the high price of medical treatment. This has brought about a question among the general public, “Where has the money gone?”
According to Bloomberg, Beijing Tongren Hospital, which specializes in treating eye, ear, nose, and throat diseases, reduced doctors’ salaries for August. Notably, the performance-based salaries and late-shift allowances had been halved.
One doctor working at the hospital said the performance-based salaries make up nearly two-thirds of doctors’ monthly pay. Therefore, such pay cuts are rarely seen.
Another physician said the pay cut happened suddenly, only one day before the payday. He added that there was no official document for such an important thing.
As reported by Sina News, pay cuts have been common in some hospitals for the past two years. Henan, Guangxi, and others experienced doctors’ salary reductions in June.
Liu Yuanli, executive dean of the School of Health Management Policy of Peking Union Medical College, said 90% of the hospital funds come from business income or the number of patients and the price of medical services. However, public hospitals do not have pricing power, which is mainly under the control of the government medical insurance department.
Pay cuts in hospitals across the nation have sparked heated debate among netizens.
Many netizens are surprised that the hospital could not pay wages to their healthcare staff, questioning where the money has gone.
One netizen highlights the reality, commenting while doctors make less money, patient treatment gets more expensive.
In July, the Chinese government launched a sweeping campaign to weed out corruption and bribery in the healthcare sector. More than 170 hospital directors or secretaries have been fired so far this year, doubling last year’s figure. It is said that this crackdown might have begun to influence the paycheck of ordinary healthcare workers.
