'Barefoot doctors' control 80% of China's private hospitals

 08-May-16, Business Insider

It all started when “doctors” with no proper medical training from the coastal town of Putian in Fujian province posted outdoor ads offering to treat people too embarrassed to go to public hospitals for proper treatment for venereal diseases.

Image: Reuters / China Daily

Three decades later, and the Putian natives – who are commonly known as the Putian Gang– control more than 80 per cent of the mainland’s private hospitals, and have close ties with military medical centres.

That network is now at the centre of allegations that it provided unsuccessful experimental cancer treatment to 21-year-old student Wei Zexi who died last month. The student had sought the treatment at the No 2 Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps and the authorities are investigating claims the hospital outsourced services to the group.

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