Zhongxin. com, June 21st (Zhongxin Finance Peng Jingru) "The cat gets sick and drives the whole family ‘ Poverty caused by illness ’ 。” A "shovel officer" with a cat commented on the medical consumption of his pet.
Many pet owners have a deep resonance with this: "If you see your pet once, you will lose your salary for one month." "From a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars." "Food expenses are small, and the pressure to go to the hospital is huge. Cats and dogs are more expensive than people." Nowadays, the problem of expensive pet medical treatment is puzzling many people.
Cat fracture costs tens of thousands of experts registration fee 300 yuan
"Pet hospitals are mixed, and sometimes minor illnesses and pains will be treated with various treatments. When I took my cat to treat stones, I even encountered a situation where the price was over 10,000. " Mr. Sun, who has had two cats before and after, told Zhongxin Finance that his second cat got sick very few times. In Shenzhen, it finally cost nearly 3,000 yuan to treat cats with stones. Previously, the sterilization of cats cost more than 1,000 yuan.
Mr. Sun said that some pet hospitals use pet owners’ love and affection for their pets to "profit from illness". When their first cat suffered from liver disease, some doctors said that the treatment would take at least two months, and the cost would be tens of thousands. However, after many inquiries and comparisons, I later found that it would cost a few hundred yuan for cats to continue taking medicine for this condition.
Zhongxin Finance randomly visited several pet hospitals in Beijing and found that because pets can’t talk and can’t reflect their own illness, pet owners can only roughly describe their symptoms. In the diagnosis and treatment, pet hospitals often propose to check the medical equipment first to determine the cause.
The pet is being treated in the hospital. Photo courtesy of respondents.
Taking the problem of cat’s regular fracture as an example, a pet hospital in East Fourth Ring Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, told Zhongxin Finance that it is necessary to take photos of cats first, and the 120 yuan is charged for each leaflet. If staff are needed to help fix pets, an additional "Baoding fee" will be paid. The cost of surgery generally ranges from 5000 to more than 10000 yuan. A pet hospital in Xicheng District, Beijing, said that it takes at least two films to determine the fracture situation, and the price of a single sheet is about three or four hundred yuan.
The third pet hospital first asked Zhongxin Finance what source it needed to hang for pets. The registration fee for orthopedic experts was 300 yuan, including the diagnosis fee. Chief physician registration fee 50 yuan, diagnosis fee 150 yuan, 200 yuan. The cost of routine fracture surgery for cats needs less than 10 thousand yuan, which does not include hospitalization, medical care and other expenses in the later period.
Is it still difficult for pet hospitals to make money under high fees?
"In addition to the various fees charged by pet hospitals, it is also one of the reasons why pets do not have non-commercial medical insurance." Mr. Sun said.
A person in charge of a pet hospital in Zhanlan Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, told Zhongxin Finance that many pet owners think that it is more expensive for pets to see a doctor. On the one hand, pet hospitals are generally private, without various policy subsidies from public hospitals, and pets rarely have medical insurance; On the other hand, the use cost of inspection and treatment equipment, drugs and consumables in pet hospitals is also higher than that in ordinary hospitals.
"Many people often have to wait in line to go to public hospitals for examinations, but pet hospitals do not have this problem.The utilization rate of pet inspection equipment is low, so the cost is much higher.. Coupled with the commercial charges of water and electricity and the high rent, the profit of pet hospitals is actually not high. "The person in charge said.
Zhongxin Finance noted that Xinruipeng Pet Medical Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xinruipeng"), a unicorn enterprise of the pet medical track, officially submitted a prospectus in January this year. The prospectus shows that in the first three quarters of 2020, 2021 and 2022, Xinruipeng’s income was about 3.008 billion yuan, 4.784 billion yuan and 4.315 billion yuan respectively, and its net loss was about 1.005 billion yuan respectively. After calculation, the cumulative loss during the reporting period was 3.42 billion yuan. This means that Xin Ruipeng is in a state of increasing income but not increasing profits in recent years.
Some insiders told the media that the pet hospital’s statement has certain realistic factors, but it ignores the doctor’s diagnosis and treatment level and professional ethics factors, which also provides cover for the chaos such as minor illnesses and excessive inspections in the pet medical market.
Regulatory intervention to standardize the pet medical market
Sino-Singapore Finance made an inquiry on a complaint platform with "pet hospital" as the key word. As of press time, there were 1501 related complaints, including misdiagnosis, induced consumption, unreasonable charges, excessive medical treatment and so on.
In response to the chaos of pet diagnosis and treatment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the General Administration of Market Supervision issued the Notice on the Special Rectification Action for Regulating the Order of Pet Diagnosis and Treatment in Some Cities in October 2022, and deployed to carry out the special rectification action for regulating the order of pet diagnosis and treatment in 20 cities including Beijing from October 2022 to May 2023.
According to the website of Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Administration, in the first half of 2023, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau carried out a special rectification campaign to standardize the order of pet diagnosis and treatment in the city, and inspected 672 pet diagnosis and treatment institutions. During the special rectification period, the city investigated and dealt with 25 cases of price violations, and the amount of fines and refunds was 29,615 yuan.
Sun Yanzheng, vice president of the Teaching Animal Hospital of China Agricultural University, told the media that it is the general trend to strengthen the supervision of the pet medical market in the face of frequent consumer questions. On the one hand, the spontaneous adjustment of the market should strictly abide by the "Measures for the Management of Animal Diagnosis and Treatment Structure" and other relevant regulations, and employees should firmly establish the awareness of engaging in pet diagnosis and treatment according to law; On the other hand, administrative supervision and industry self-discipline should keep up, increase the transparency and openness of all aspects of pet diagnosis and treatment, put an end to induced consumption, and let doctors return to the initial heart of doctors during surgery, examination and medication. (End)
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