Chinese health minister Gao Qiang says China has failed to provide adequate health care to most of its citizens and the national health system is unable to properly cope with large-scale epidemics and diseases. His remarks were shown in a report posted on the ministry's official website.
The report said hospitals and doctors were being bribed by pharmaceutical companies to prescribe expensive medicines, operations and medical checks for patients.
This is particularly dangerous because many of China's poorer citizens, who can barely afford the bills, simply leave illnesses untreated, which can lead to outbreaks of diseases.
Citing an official national survey in 2003, the report said 48.9 percent of people who need treatment do not go to a doctor and 29.6 percent who should stay in a hospital do not because of the cost.
Gao blamed many of China's health crises, including the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), on its ineffective healthcare system, due mainly to insufficient government spending.
SARS emerged in China in late 2002 and spread globally to infect more than 8,000 people and kill some 800 worldwide, including 349 in China.
