BEIJING: At a bustling Beijing hospital, Tian Yigui hands over some of his elderly wife’s paperwork to Meng Jia, a “patient companion” hired to help navigate China’s stretched and bureaucratic health care system.
Yawning funding gaps and patchy medical coverage have long funnelled many Chinese people toward better resourced city hospitals for much-needed care.
Sprawling, overcrowded and noisy, the facilities can be exhausting for patients and their families, especially the elderly.
The problem has fueled the rise of patient companions, or “peizhenshi,” a lucrative and unofficial service in the country’s growing gig economy.
Tian, 83, said most Beijing hospitals were “overwhelmingly confusing.”
