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Published procedure prices

Colorectal cancer surgery in China: the published price

Two lines: a radical colectomy for cancer of the colon, done laparoscopically, and a radical resection of rectal cancer by the Dixon method. Both are cancer operations with the same underlying logic — remove the tumour and a length of bowel either side of it — and the schedule prices them within a few hundred yuan of each other. The staples, the bowel and the theatre are not in either line.

The published price lines

Every line Beijing's schedule publishes for this procedure, with the project code the hospital bills against and the date the schedule took effect. One row per line, not one total.

ItemPublished price
Laparoscopic radical colectomy for colon cancer
Project code: HPS77501 · Schedule name: 经腹腔镜结肠癌根治术
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$373per operation¥2,504
Radical resection of rectal cancer (Dixon)
Project code: HPU77301 · Schedule name: 直肠癌根治术(Dixon手术)
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$444per operation¥2,982

Source: Jun 15, 2019

Chinese hospitals publish prices in CNY; the CNY figures are converted for readability using an indicative rate and are not a quoted price. International-department services are priced by each hospital and are typically well above these statutory rates. Always obtain a written quote before travelling.

What this price is

A line in Beijing's published medical service price schedule: the rate a hospital in that city bills against for the procedure itself, for a patient on the standard public ward. It is not a quote, not an estimate and not a total. An international department sets its own prices, and a patient who is not on the Chinese insurance system is usually charged under that department's list — which is higher, sometimes considerably higher.

What the line does not cover

A published surgical price is the procedure line, never the invoice. The schedule says which items each line excludes, and the row above prints that list. Sutures, haemostatic materials, drains, the laparoscope and its consumables, staplers, clips, energy devices, anti-adhesion film, glue, the implant or mesh, the fixation device, imaging guidance in theatre and the clean operating theatre itself are billed on top. So are the ward, the medicines and the investigations before and after. The figure in the table is the part that is published; the invoice is not.

What the stay costs on top

A bed is a bed, wherever you are admitted, so the published ward rates apply to every one of these procedures. They are per day, and they are the clearest published account of what actually drives cost in a Chinese hospital: ward class, not privacy.

What a hospital bed costs per day in Beijing
  • General ward bed¥50
    / day
  • Three-bed room¥60
    / day
  • Intensive care unit bed¥60
    / day
  • Single room¥80
    / day
  • ISO-7 cleanroom bed¥300
    / day
  • Special protective ward bed¥1,100
    / day

Published daily rates. The spread across room types is small — a single room costs ¥30 more than a shared one — while the spread across ward classes is 22 times. The multiplier in a Chinese hospital is ward class, not privacy.

Ward rates (per day)

Where to have it

The hospitals we list that carry this specialty, with the reputation positions we can attribute to a source. A published schedule line tells you what the procedure costs in a Chinese city. It does not tell you which hospital to go to, and it is not a quality ranking.

General Surgery

#1in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Peking Union Medical College Hospital中国医学科学院北京协和医院 · Beijing
#2in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Zhongshan Hospital (Shanghai)复旦大学附属中山医院 · Shanghai
#3in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		West China Hospital, Sichuan University四川大学华西医院 · Chengdu
#4in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Ruijin Hospital上海交通大学医学院附属瑞金医院 · Shanghai
#5in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		PLA General Hospital中国人民解放军总医院 · Beijing
#6in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Tongji Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology华中科技大学同济医学院附属同济医院 · Wuhan
#7in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine浙江大学医学院附属第一医院 · Hangzhou
#8in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University中山大学附属第一医院 · Guangzhou
#9in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine浙江大学医学院附属第二医院 · Hangzhou
#10in General Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Peking University People's Hospital北京大学人民医院 · Beijing

Other procedures with published prices

The rest of the schedule we have read, grouped by the operation a patient would name.