China’s healthcare system still plagued by ‘serious deficiencies’ despite Covid spending spree

Name: Shanghai hospitals overwhelmed as Covid cases spike
Uploaded: 2023-01-28T12:30:14.000Z
Duration: 1 min 43 s
Description: Shanghai hospitals overwhelmed as Covid cases spike

China spent enormous sums of money on building isolation facilities and makeshift hospitals, as well rolling out mass testing

But after Beijing abruptly pivoted from zero-Covid, a surge in infections overwhelmed the medical system, highlighting deficiencies

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after Beijing abruptly pivoted from its strict zero-Covid policy last month, a surge in infections overwhelmed hospitals and morgues. Photo: AP

SCMP Reporter

Published: 8:30pm, 28 Jan 2023

China’s investment to fight the coronavirus, particularly the construction of makeshift hospitals, has exposed “serious infrastructure deficiencies in healthcare and pandemic prevention” and left those on the front line questioning why the medical system is still “so broken” after three years.

The country of more than 1.4 billion people spent enormous sums of money on building isolation facilities and makeshift hospitals, as well rolling out mass testing, over the course of its hardline zero-Covid strategy.

Guangdong province alone spent 71.1 billion yuan (US10.5 billion) on prevention and control last year, according to its fiscal report released in early January, an increase of 57 per cent on 2021. This almost doubled its cumulative spend for the last three years to 146.8 billion yuan.

Fujian province in southeast China also invested 13.04 billion yuan last year to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, up 56 per cent from 2021. Over the past three years, it has spent a total of 30.5 billion yuan, according to its fiscal report released in January.

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Shanghai hospitals overwhelmed as Covid cases spike

China might have spent 25.4 billion yuan last year on the construction of makeshift hospitals, plus a total of 739.3 billion yuan on nucleic acid testing sites, which is higher than Luxembourg’s 2022 gross domestic product, according to a report by Minsheng Securities in May.