(The Shangdi Hospital formally opened on December 21, 2005 in Haidian district in western Beijing. Photo: THE FIRST)

The high charge makes a nearby clinic of a elite hospital in Beijing unaccessible for a pregnant woman, Xing Xiaoying, and so the opening of a low-cost hospital in her neighborhood last week means gratifying news.

The registration fee of 1,000 yuan (125 U.S.dollars) at Shangdi Clinic of the No. 3 Hospital of Beijing University is almost a monthly income of her husband, and the charge is incredible for Xing, who is in her seventh month of pregnancy.

The newly-opened Shangdi Hospital in Haidian district in western Beijing is the first one geared to low-income residents and migrant workers in the national capital.

The registration fee is only 0.5 yuan (about 0.06 U.S.dollars), and the charge for a smooth delivery is only 1,000 yuan (125 U.S.dollars) there, much cheaper than in the city's other hospitals.

"It's too costly for me to give birth in other hospitals which would charge at least some 3,000 yuan (375 U.S.dollars)," said Xing, who came to ask about the delivery charge the day when the hospital opened.

The unbelievable, high-charged clinic, which claims to cater for Beijing's high-end customers, is just 3,000 km away, where the minimum yearly membership is 13,800 yuan and the top-class membership, which gives well-tailored private doctor service, costs 98,000 yuan a year.

The low-cost hospital is part of the country's endeavor to improve its much-grumbled medical system, which has been driven by economic interests for nearly two decades and is losing its public service character.

Though China reports substantial increase in the numbers of hospitals, clinics, doctors, nurses and medical appliances since reform was started in the 1980s, the corresponding rise of charge made hospitals devoid of low-income people.

Next