China cracks down on hospital scalpers, online cappers

China on Tuesday launched a campaign to address the practice of hospital appointment scalping and online cappers.

From now to the end of the year, police will inspect major hospitals and their surroundings. Doctors are not allowed to add more appointments and all appointments must be strictly managed, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), one of the departments taking part in the campaign.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, and State Administration for Industry and Commerce are all also involved in the campaign.

Other departments include the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Logistic Support Department of the Central Military Commission.

Medical advertisements will be regulated, a joint statement by departments involved in the campaign said, and online medical advertisements must be approved by the health authority.

Proven hospital appointment scalpers will be added to a database and this will be linked to their social credit history.

In a longer term, health system reform should be deepened, medical resource distributions be optimized and medical advertising be standardized, according to the statement.

The campaign follows the death of a college student who was given ineffective cancer treatment after seeing an advertisement on Chinese search engine Baidu that claimed a high success rate for the treatment.

The incident has outraged society. Baidu and the hospital, the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps, at which the college student underwent the treatment, are being investigated. Endi