Antibiotic misuse | Iron deficiency | Medical tourism from Taiwan | Tuberculosis resurgence | Autocratic hospitals

Inappropriate use of antibiotics has declined in hospitals after a national antibiotic stewardship was run in 2011-12. A survey of 100 hospitals showed that antibiotic use decreased  from 39.4 to 26.5 defined daily doses/100 inpatient days while the percentage of antibiotic use in outpatient prescriptions fell from 24% to 19%.

Students in China are ignorant about the correct use of antibiotics, with about 57% self medicating frequently and 30% using them for common colds. About half of the antibiotic users also preferred to have them given as intravenous infusions, a study at a Xian university found.
 
Iron and zinc deficiency are common in Chinese children, affecting 36% and 40% of children aged three to 12 years of age, a study carried out in 1800 children in seven cities has found.

Medical tourism from Taiwan to China is booming, with more than 100,000 insurance claims being made by Taiwanese for treatment in China, at a total cost of US$7.83 million last year.

Hospitals are allowing patients to make appointments via Weixin (WeChat) to avoid the long queues for a doctor registration.  The YueBei Peoples Hospital in Guangdong has posted WeChat QR codes around the hospital for patients to connect with its public account, view information about specialist doctors, make an appointment and even monitor where they are in the queue.

Of the 11,000 private hospitals  operating in China about 8,000 are run by healthcare tycoons from Putian in Fujian, where thousands of locals are engaged in the medical and healthcare industries, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

China is seeing a dangerous resurgence in tuberculosis, with more than 1.3 million new cases of  a year, and many patients with Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) or Extremely Resistant Drug Tuberculosis (XDR-TB), says the Chinese Center for Disease Control.

Hospital management in China is characterised by a top-down, autocratic model in which departmental heads have little autonomy and there is little 'talent management' a new study suggests.

Children in Beijing are suffering from an outbreak of mouth sores caused by enterovirus, similar to hand foot and mouth disease. One hospital treated about a thousand cases of herpangina over the past week, according to the Capital Institute of Pediatrics.