Migrant workers scammed by private hospitals

The parlous state of migrant workers in cities such as Shanghai is no secret, especially vulnerable are pregnant women who don't get the kind of prenatal care and proper delivery they need. This improve the situation, but that's one thing, while large-scale scams at privately run hospitals designed for the sole purpose of fleecing migrant workers is another. Take for example, Changjiang Hospital (长江医院）which (we believe) is in the Hongkou district, where many migrant workers from Anhui and other provinces live and work. This is one of those places that puts up ads all over the place -- those ads you've seen wrapped around telephone poles and bathroom walls are for places like this. Well, last June they told this woman that she and her husband could not get pregnant, but they promised them that with their help, they would one day be holding a baby in their arms. Five days and over 35,000 yuan later, this couple walked out and then (!) decided to get another opinion, subsequently discovering that the woman had been pregnant since May -- and had been feeding her unborn child fertility drugs, courtesy of Changjiang hospital.

Accidents do happen, of course, and doctors are human -- but when it happens more than once a year, well, you get suspicious. After two cases brought unwanted attention to this place, the media snapped it up, with Phoenix TV running a whole segment on this hospital on February 19. Both of the couples that were "mistakenly diagnosed" sued the hospital late last year, and yet now, several months later, there is no news of a trial, because there isn't going to be a trial -- both cases were settled "out of court". According to this article (in Chinese), one of the couples got 200,000 yuan for their troubles, while the others also reached an out of court settlement, though they were not at liberty to talk about the details. And from these reports, it seems as if business at the hospital is still booming, as if nothing had happened ...

Photo from Xinhua.