Residents on minimum living allowances and some 600,000 journeywork jobbers with low income in the national capital have been given a new hope for cheap but reliable hospital service.

 

The Shangdi Hospital covering a floor space of 8,000 square meters began trial operation in Shangdi, a high-tech base to the northwest of Beijing on Monday.

 

Although being still small in scale, the hospital is the first government-funded hospital for the urban poor and the large crowd of floating population in the national capital, which plays an exemplary role for other cities in China.

 

The hospital will be officially inaugurated by the end of the month, said Wang Ling, head of the hospital, which was jointly set up by the two public hospitals, namely the Haidian Hospital and the Haidian Women and Children's Health Care Hospital.

 

The hospital's medical relief covers women's childbirth, acute heart diseases and cerebral hemorrhage. Taken childbirth for example, the averaged price in Beijing's hospitals is between 2,000 to 3,000 yuan (US$250-375). In Shangdi Hospital, the price can be controlled at 1,000 yuan (US$125), said Wang.

 

For peoples in extreme poverty, the hospital allows them to charge to an account, which is supplied by financing from the district government of Haidian, where the hospital is located.

 

Haidian District densely rallied by big high-tech companies is a major tax payer to the municipal government of Beijing, which contributes to some one sixth of Beijing's total taxation annually.

 

With the financial support, the Shangdi Hospital's pharmacy also offers low price for some 500 varieties of drugs, which is about 5 to 10 percent lower than the average price in other hospitals.

 

According to official statistics, China has 40 percent of township residents and 72 percent of rural people live without any medicare supports. Low-income people in cities have to spend almost 10 percent of their income as medical expenditure on average, while the rural poor spend as high as 26 percent of their trivial income on medicine or hospital expenditure.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2005)