Video sparks hospital scalping swoop
Print Edition
POLICE have arrested 12 people for allegedly scalping outpatient appointments in three downtown hospitals following a viral video that showed a furious women at a hospital blaming scalpers for her failure to get a ticket.
Seven suspected scalpers were found by police on Monday at the Guang’anmen Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Hospital where the incident occurred last Tuesday, Beijing police said. Four of the suspects were detained.
Five other alleged scalpers were arrested at Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Xuanwu Hospital. The lady in the video said she had been waiting in the hospital for an outpatient appointment for two days, and still could not get a ticket. A scalper offered her an appointment for 4,500 yuan (US$684) for a booking originally priced at 300 yuan.
She claimed hospital staff colluded with scalpers. But the hospital later denied the accusation.
Wu Lin, a witness to the outburst, told Beijing Youth Daily that the woman had begun waiting in front of the appointment office the night before, and was second in the queue. But suddenly a scalper jumped in front of her and threw her mobile phone to the ground when she tried to take his picture. He shouted: “I will beat you, believe it or not.”
When the appointment office opened in the morning, she was told that the specialist she wished to see was fully booked, the paper reported. But then a person who had arrived later succeeded in getting an appointment, causing the woman to lose her temper.
Wu said: “Scalpers always come to the hospital … their faces are very familiar.”
He added: “Sometimes I went to the hospital at 4am, but scalpers were already waiting there and asked me whether I wanted an appointment number to see specialist that day.”
Officers are still investigating the scalping problem in Guang’anmen TCM Hospital and will continue to cooperate with health authorities to carry out a crackdown at hospitals, said a police source.
Well-equipped hospitals in Beijing attract patients nationwide, which means getting an appointment can be difficult.
Though telephone and Internet reservations were introduced to make outpatient bookings convenient, scalping remains rampant in Beijing and other big cities.
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