SHANGHAI: City officials have a blunt warning for so-called "medical peddlers": your days are numbered.

Peddlers are known to prowl reputable hospitals and persuade patients to go to cheap, illegal clinics, where many patients have been known to get more than they bargained for complications from surgery and cheated out of their money.

The campaign against medical peddlers is listed for the first time among "eight projects" planed by the city authorities for 2007.

Shanghai has many highly reputable hospitals and most are patrolled by peddlers.

Such hospitals include Huashan Hospital, Ruijin Hospital and No 9 People's Hospital where more than 100 peddlers work every day.

Zhang Jiawen, a staff member with Huashan Hospital said the peddlers no longer limited their movements to the hospital lobby, and approached people at the nearby subway station to beat the competition.

And it has turned violent for some.

Zhang Tianyu, a senior director with the Eye Ear Nose and Throat Hospital of Fudan University, was beaten up in front of the hospital last November by a group of peddlers after Zhang spoke out about their cheating ways.

Under the new crackdown, those who hire peddlers to get business will "face strict punishment", officials said.

Pedders will be targeted in known spots by teams working in cooperation with agencies including the city's public health bureau and local police.

(China Daily 03/01/2007 page4)