Investigative journalism is not dead in Beijing:
"As I was handing my registration to the doctor, and before I'd even dropped my trousers to let him see the afflicted area, I was told to have an enema." "It was only when the anesthetic was being injected into my buttocks that I noticed that the presiding surgeon was not the 'famous doctor' from the advertisement." "The moment the cutting started was when I realized that the doctor's so-called 'painless' procedure was actually a 'scream'."
At the Dongda Proctology hospital, the only things padded are the bills:
"Every doctor who is hired in the hospital is assigned an assistant who acts as a 'little spy' for the boss. What drug should the doctor prescribe? How much should the surgery cost? Can a minor illness be described as a major one, and can a major illness be described as cancer to pressure patients into opting for surgery? The boss knows all."
This is the latest in a series of exposes of investor-led private hospitals across China, some of which may lead to serious consequences. In late August, Fang Zhouzi, who is basically the Chinese equivalent of Ben Goldacre, was assaulted by two men armed with hammers and a narcotic spray as he walked home from an interview in Beijing:
Fang’s lawyer, Peng Jian, said he thought the attack was most likely ordered by a private hospital in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, which specializes in a controversial operation on the nervous system to control urinary incontinence.
A Chinese journalist who had written an article raising doubts about the operation’s efficacy was assaulted last June. Fang, in a blog posted three weeks ago, cited an article in a US magazine criticizing the operation. A court in Zhengzhou is due later this month to hear a malpractice suit brought by Mr. Peng against the hospital on behalf of a group of patients claiming the operation did them more harm than good.
There’s some speculation that the assault on Fang was designed not to kill him but to leave him brain damaged as a warning to others.
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