What's up, doc?

Rich doctors, poor doctors

I don't know how authentic Ren's report is that many of his peers make as much as he does.

A few years ago, I went on a trip to Africa with a dozen healthcare professionals who were to offer free medical services for treating cataracts. I learned firsthand that most of them did not make that much.

I did a little search and found a 2015 survey on Dxy.cn, a medical information site. It surveyed 30,000 doctors nationwide and concluded that the average annual salary was 77,000 yuan, and 74 percent of them were not satisfied with how much they earned.

If this figure is accurate and can be extrapolated to the whole country, it confirms my impression that doctors in China are far from being envied－not only compared with their counterparts in developed countries, but with professionals in other Chinese industries such as finance.

Considering the higher-than-normal investment in education and training, their incomes can be said to be on the lower end of the social spectrum.

The primary reason incomes of Chinese doctors do not reflect their status or market demand is that the rates of China's medical services are highly regulated.

It costs only a couple of yuan to see a doctor, so even if a doctor treats 100 patients a day it does not add to much.

To subsidize the cost of counseling, hospitals would add a heavy markup to the drugs prescribed.

The practice was rooted in the good intention of offering nearly free service to everyone, but it has led to less-than-desirable results.

For example, some people would flock to the best hospitals for something as innocuous as a common cold. Meanwhile, both patients and pharmaceutical sales representatives would dangle big bribes to doctors, which is the market's way to "correct" the reality of doctors being seriously underpaid.

Whenever there is a complaint against the medical profession, people narrate stories of American doctors as role models. But they tend to forget that American doctors are paid 15 times as much.

And it is pretty hard for anyone to keep up the good attitude if 100 patients are squeezed into one shift.

Everyone also wants free or nearly free healthcare that is also quality service, and few see the irony in it.

A government should help those in need, the poor who cannot afford expensive medical services. But if it makes healthcare affordable by artificially depressing the incomes of the profession, it is tantamount to driving away future talent from the industry.

In that sense, Ren has become an antidote even though his solution may not be applicable across the industry.

Contact the writer at raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn