People wait for a registration in a long line at a hospital. (Photo/Beijing Times)
(ECNS) -- Pregnant women in Beijing are finding it more difficult to get appointments for childbirth registration and treatment as well as booking beds at major hospitals across the city after China announced a new national policy that allows all to have a second child last year, Beijing Times reports.
According to an earlier projection by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, the city expects a record 300,000 newborns this year, an increase of about 60,000 compared to previous years. About 30 percent of this year's newborns will be second children, the report stated.
At Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, a notice dated August 2 said registration for women expecting to give birth by March 2017 is now fully booked, while the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Peking University People's Hospital said all beds are reserved until April 20, 2017.
Many other hospitals, including Peking University Third Hospital, the Huilongguan Branch of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital and Beijing Chuiyangliu Hospital, also said registration is full until April 2017.
Demand for childbirth care has made top hospitals a hotbed for scalpers. At Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, a scalper charged between 3,000 to 10,000 yuan ($450-1,500) for securing an appointment with a physician as well as getting registered for childbirth, according to the paper.
As a result, some pregnant women have set their sights on hospitals in nearby Hebei Province, which are far less crowded, it was added.
