Pediatrician Yang Yang checks a child at Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center in Guangdong province in January. ZHANG ZIWANG/FOR CHINA DAILY Fees for medical treatments and examinations of children 6 and younger were raised by 30 percent in Guangzhou recently as a way to keep the city's pediatricians from quitting their jobs. According to a notice issued by four city government departments at the end of April, the higher fees cover 408 kinds of treatments and examinations for children. The increase in fees for children aims to overcome the difficulty in seeing pediatricians and to encourage more medical students to become pediatricians, the notice said. The price increase is also expected to encourage State-run hospitals to provide even better medical services to children. An ordinary diagnostic fee for a child was increased from 10 yuan to 13 yuan ($1.60 to $2.05). A tonsillectomy rose from 520 yuan to 676 yuan. Gong Sitang, deputy president of the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, said the policy is people-oriented, as it allows pediatricians to feel respected. Pediatricians usually have to be more careful and face heavy pressure in seeing child patients because some of the children are too young to speak or can't clearly describe their symptoms, Gong said. Also, most of them are their parents' only child and usually the apple of their parents' eye. Gong said the price hike will not increase the burden of patients or parents who enjoy medical insurance or who are covered by the country's healthcare system. Most of the children's medical expense are actually paid by the government and insurance companies, he said. Fang Zhuohong, a Guangzhou office worker, said she hoped the higher fees would make it easier to see pediatricians. Many parents have to spend at least half a day to bring their children to see a doctor in Guangzhou, she said. Many people won't be able to see senior doctors or specialists if they don't make appointments in advance. But not all people applauded the move. The price hike will increase the burden for myriad migrant workers who come from outside the city, said one Guangzhou resident, who refused to give his name. Many of them don't have local medical insurance and have not yet been included in the healthcare system. A shortage of pediatricians has seen some city hospitals close their pediatrics departments in recent years. A pediatrician at a major general hospital, who did not want to be named, said many pediatricians in his hospital have to work overtime. Some pediatricians have to see as many as 200 patients a day, about three times the number seen by an ordinary doctor, he said. custom silicone wristbandsglow wristbandspersonalized silicone braceletssilicone keychain24 hour wristbands24 hour wristbands coupon
Two-year, high-level inspections saw companies fined 1.43b yuanThe biggest environmental inspection ever in China - covering 31 provincial regions over two years - led to 18,199 government officials being punished for their failure to control pollution, it was announced on Thursday.The central government inspectors exposed 135,000 cases, many featuring common problems such as weak enforcement of regulations to improve air and water quality, said Liu Changgen, deputy director of the National Environmental Inspection Office."The inspections motivated local governments to show their full strength in combating pollution, with tough penalties meted out to the vast number of officials who failed in their duties," he said.About 29,000 companies were also fined a combined 1.43 billion yuan ($218 million) for failing to meet standards to reduce pollution, while 1,527 people were detained for potential criminal activity.Over a series of monthlong inspections, the Ministry of Environmental Protection found some local governments had "performed poorly by showing negligence, inaction and a refusal to implement controls", said Liu, whose office is part of the ministry.The No 1 problem was the severe air and water pollution that had occurred in some places because local authorities had not taken effective environmental measures, leading to public concern.For example, in Sichuan province's Zigong, the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the air increased by 32.5 percent in the first half of 2017, while quality tests showed only 11.1 percent of the city's water was above the national standard in 2016, compared with 50 percent in 2013, the inspection team reported to the provincial government.Nationally, inspectors found a lack of facilities to process the daily waste from urban regions, with 12 million metric tons of untreated sewage discharged directly into waterways, Liu said on Thursday.In response, cities have accelerated construction of treatment facilities, such as Guangdong province's Shenzhen, which has started to expand its sewage network by 2,000 kilometers.Inspection teams also discovered illegal and excessive exploitation of mines, water resources and wetlands, including in Hainan and Shandong provinces, which showed that decision-makers had not been paying close attention, Liu said."Next year, our teams will revisit these provinces to check whether the problems have been solved," he added. "Inspections in each place lasted for only a month, but the message they sent to officials - to protect and improve the environment - should last a long time."[email protected]
