Summer is traditionally the peak season for health check-ups because students are on vacation and graduates need to prove their physical fitness to potential employers.

About 80 percent of local hospitals offer the service but in a bid to make a quick buck, small hospitals are giving big discounts and providing door-to-door service.

However, some of them are found to use low-quality equipment or skip some tests to save costs.

And some even use the tests as bait to lure potential patients.

Doctors at one hospital declare almost everyone who has a free physical examinations with them ill "proved" by some bacteria activity enlarged by a microscope, the newspaper said without disclosing the hospital's name.

(China Daily July 04, 2002)