China Health Statistics Yearbook was released, the data show that only one year, private hospitals lost up to 130 billion, while the public medical institutions, although the same state of loss, but only 2.2 billion. This data is undoubtedly a big shock to many people. So why are private hospitals not making money now?
a, more hospitals less patientsFrom the Health Commission's "Statistical Yearbook" we can easily see that in recent years, private hospitals have been a state of continuous growth. By the end of 2020, has reached 23,524, accounting for about 66% of the total number of hospitals.
The reason why private hospitals are growing so rapidly is directly related to our policies. Between 2015 and 2020, there are more than 20 at the central level alone that encourage the development of private hospitals. The 14th Five-Year Plan explicitly states "Support social medical practice and encourage experienced practicing physicians to open private clinics."
While some private hospitals have made notable achievements under the influence of the policy, this is, after all, a minority, and most private hospitals are still struggling to survive. The Statistical Yearbook shows that in 2020, our country's public institutions revenue of 4.87 trillion yuan, while the non-public health care institutions only 806.7 billion yuan, the two are not at all comparable to say.
To see the root cause of this situation, we can refer to another set of data. The number of visits to public hospitals in 2020 was 2.792 billion, while private hospitals had only 531 million. Although the number of private hospitals accounts for a high percentage, the number of attendances is far less than one-fifth of that of public hospitals. Because there are no patients, so private hospitals will naturally have lower revenues.
Two, high costsPrivate hospitals have become less profitable, but this has not stopped their high expenses. Whether it's rent, utilities, equipment or employee salaries, it's a lot of money. And now there are a lot of private hospitals are eager to change the status quo, not to spend a lot of money to hire medical professionals in various fields. After all, if you want to attract customers, you still need to rely on such doctors and services. In this way, the expenditure is even more exponentially increased up.
Income is decreasing, but the expenditure is increasing, such a situation, private hospitals are difficult not to lose money. Once there were many listed companies that dreamed of having a hospital. But when a large amount of capital poured into the market, it will be found and their imagination is completely different. If time can be reversed, I believe there are a lot of people who enter the game will not hesitate to choose to withdraw.
Third, the loss of consumer trustToday's private hospitals are not in a high position in everyone's mind. Because of all the chaos over the years, gradually lost everyone's trust. Not only is there often over-treatment, but there is also indiscriminate charging, insurance fraud and other things happen. In this way, people's distrust of private hospitals is growing, resulting in fewer and fewer people coming to see the doctor.
Four, the state to increase support for public hospitalsPrivate hospitals and public hospitals are different, they are self-financing. And in recent years, our country's support for public hospitals has been increasing. Especially after 2018, with the reform of band purchasing and health insurance payment methods, it makes private hospitals once again in a difficult situation. Because of the drop in drug prices, many grassroots public hospitals have also begun to rise. Not only have medical facilities been improved, but medical services are also improving, so private hospitals have no advantage to speak of.
And according to the official website of the Ministry of Finance, in 2020 alone, the state subsidized 10.086 billion yuan of "comprehensive reform" funds to public hospitals. This also includes special subsidies for the cultivation of health talents and the inheritance of traditional Chinese medicine. These are not available to private hospitals, which can only get money from the market.
Under the multiple blows, many private hospitals are hard to maintain and gradually embark on the road to bankruptcy. There are still some struggling private hospitals that desperately want to raise money in order to continue to survive. It's just that investors now also see that this area of business is very difficult to do, and gradually lose their enthusiasm for them. Even if some private hospitals have struggled to get listed under the big mergers and acquisitions, the road afterward has not been easy.
Like the once brilliant "Central Plains medical first share" Hebi Jingli Hospital, on January 6, 2022, had no choice but to go to the point of being auctioned. The once massive influx of capital into the private hospital market no longer exists, and now they are trying hard to get out.
ConclusionToday's private hospitals are in trouble, and the industry as a whole is in "decline". It is not easy to change this situation quickly. In the face of such a status quo, private hospitals should be more reflective.
The first thing to do is to improve their own service and medical level, to regain the public's trust. Only with the trust of patients, private hospitals have a chance to regain their life. Second could consider the transformation, to the direction of the development of specialty hospitals. Only by finding the right direction can you help yourself out of the mire.