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Published procedure prices

Kidney and bladder surgery in China: the published price

Five lines across three operations: removing a kidney, open and laparoscopic, at the same price; removing a stone from the ureter with a laser, or from the kidney through an open incision; and resecting a bladder tumour through the urethra. The stone and the tumour lines are the cheapest and the two kidney removals the dearest. A ureteric stent, a guidewire and the theatre are not in the lines.

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
Radical nephrectomy
Project code: HRB77301 · Schedule name: 根治性肾切除术
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.
$380per operation¥2,553
Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy
Project code: HRB77501 · Schedule name: 经腹腔镜根治性肾切除术
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.
$380per operation¥2,553
Ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy and stone removal
Project code: HRF65604 · Schedule name: 经尿道输尿管镜激光碎石取石术
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.
$185per operation¥1,240
Pyelolithotomy, open stone removal
Project code: HRC65301 · Schedule name: 肾盂切开取石术
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.
$196per operation¥1,313
Transurethral resection of a bladder tumour
Project code: HRG73401 · Schedule name: 经尿道膀胱肿瘤电切治疗
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Excluded from this price line: 三腔导尿 管 Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$163per operation¥1,094

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.

Urology

#1in Urology
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		PLA General Hospital中国人民解放军总医院 · Beijing
#2in Urology
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		The First Affiliated Hospital of Peking University北京大学第一医院 · Beijing
#4in Urology
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University中山大学孙逸仙纪念医院 · Guangzhou
#5in Urology
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
#6in Urology
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Renji Hospital上海交通大学医学院附属仁济医院 · Shanghai
#7in Urology
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Changhai Hospital, Naval Medical University海军军医大学第一附属医院 · Shanghai
#8in Urology
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Peking Union Medical College Hospital中国医学科学院北京协和医院 · Beijing
#9in Urology
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

Other procedures with published prices

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