Ticket scalpers face crackdown at Beijing hospitals

A guide from Beijing Tongren Hospital. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

Beijing Tongren Hospital has also taken measures to suppress ticket scalpers.

Seven or eight guides visit places near the hospital where most scalpers appear, to answer questions from patients.

The hospital reversed regulations of some departments to have fixed quantities of daily appointment tickets, so that anyone can receive service on the day itself.

Things are also going more smoothly at Peking University School of Stomatology.

A special post has been set up at the place where ticket scalpers gather and each morning the security guard checks if there are any in the line and monitors suspicious people walking around.

A patient said he hasn't seen any scalpers since the hospital increased security. "An appointment ticket is 100 yuan ($15.3) but you need to pay 500 yuan more if you have to buy it from ticket scalpers. It's outrageous," said the patient.

Scalping is a major problem for hospitals and railway stations during holiday seasons.

Well-equipped hospitals in Beijing attract patients nationwide, which leads to overcrowding and increases difficulty to get an appointment.

Though telephone and Internet reservations were introduced to make bookings convenient, scalping remains rampant in large hospitals in Beijing and other big cities.