The recent exposure of the mortuary of the Third Hospital of Peking University to charge sky-high funeral fees has made many people realize that the mortuary originally located in the hospital has been outsourced to a company that is not affiliated with the hospital.

  Our reporter visited many hospitals and found that outsourcing of mortuaries is very common.

Affected by the incident, some hospital mortuaries have suspended high-priced projects, and some hospital mortuaries retain some "selective funeral services".

There are still intricate relationships among a number of outsourcing companies.

Variety

Suspended additional services for some stocks that have been closed

  At the west gate exit of a hospital outside the North Second Ring Road, a row of inconspicuous low rooms is the mortuary, with the sign of Beijing Shoushan Huiming Funeral Service Co., Ltd. hanging on the door.

According to information released by China's public service platform for tendering and bidding in April last year, the company won the bid for the hospital's mortuary management project with a transaction value of 660,000 yuan.

  Walking into the office, you can see related documents such as business licenses, work procedures, and service guidelines hanging on the wall.

  "At the moment, there are only corpse receipts, corpse bag money, 30 yuan a day's corpse deposit fee and 80 yuan corpse pushing fee, and the rest is nothing." Facing the reporter's inquiry, a staff member was very cautious. "If you go to the mortuary service in the near future, it can be done for about a few hundred yuan, and there are no other costs."

  "I won't let it go, and the clothes will not be sold for the time being." He said, if it was put in the past, the "one-stop" service would cost a few thousand yuan.

The reporter pointed to the "Concierge Business Process" with the words "3,800 yuan for carrying spirits" written on the wall and asked if it could still be carried out. The other party hesitated for a while and said, "This is basically gone."

  "Is it because of the sky-high funeral expenses?" As soon as the reporter finished speaking, the staff immediately replied, "Yes, yes!" He said that after the incident was exposed, the mortuary was asked to suspend goods and services.

  "Nothing else is allowed. We have sealed the stock." Another staff member said and pointed to the side against the wall.

The reporter found that there, the suspected previous inventory was covered with a white curtain more than 1 meter high.

The staff member said that there have been a lot of inquiries recently, and some people are worried about what to do if they are not allowed to sell goods.

return visit

Product sales still emphasize voluntary choice

  "Which department is the patient in? What floor is it?" In a hospital in Nancheng, the staff of the mortuary were extra vigilant.

He said that now only the most basic businesses can be carried out, such as 30 yuan a day for corpses, 120 yuan for body wraps, and 300 yuan for body bags, and people are lifted from the ward for free.

"It's all priced clearly to see if you need it. Clothes are not sold, it's just a service." In addition, there is a service for taking off clothes for 100 yuan. "A farewell ceremony will not work, there is no farewell hall."

  A year ago, when the reporter came to visit, there were also shrouds ranging from 2,600 yuan to 10,000 yuan, urns ranging from 2,000 yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, and a farewell ceremony of about 2,800 yuan.

  On the eve of Qingming last year, the reporter visited the mortuary of a hospital outside the South Second Ring Road.

Now, staff say all but the government-priced essential services are "selective funeral services".

The reporter asked about the specifics. The other party said that there were shrouds ranging from more than 2,000 yuan to more than 4,000 yuan, urns ranging from a few hundred yuan to seven or eight thousand yuan, and a concierge carrying a spirit of about 3,800 yuan. If the body is wiped with an alcohol towel and clothed, it is 810 yuan. The other is for the deceased to take a bath and wash with warm water, and it costs 3980 yuan.” The staff repeatedly emphasized that these are voluntary choices of the family members.

  When it comes to the high-priced funeral expenses of the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University, the other party said that it is possible to spend tens of thousands of yuan, but in some places it is a "comprehensive number". Management is different."

  "In that kind of place, there is no way to bargain." Mr. Tu, who handled the funeral for his relatives last year, said that he also spent tens of thousands of yuan at the time, "I later learned that the mortuary is outsourced to a company. Some mortuary staff just saw that the family members were grief-stricken and did not bother to look closely at the project, and made sales under the banner of sending the 'last ride'." He hopes that the management of the hospital's mortuary will be more standardized and more transparent.

outsourcing

The transaction amount ranges from tens to millions

  In fact, it is no secret that mortuaries are outsourced in major hospitals.

  "In order to strengthen the management of the mortuary in our hospital and improve the quality of funeral services, we will re-tender and purchase the outsourcing services of the mortuary in our hospital." According to the bidding documents for a hospital mortuary funeral service project published on the Chinese government procurement website, the working area of ​​the hospital mortuary is approximately 56 square meters, one for farewell room and one for duty room.

According to the hospital construction plan, the working area of ​​the mortuary will be adjusted to underground in the future, the area will be increased to about 104 square meters, and there will be one storage room, one farewell room and one duty room.

In the past five years, about 77 people died in the hospital every year.

  "The equipment and utensils used by the bidder in the funeral service process, such as low-temperature body storage cabinets, body transport vehicles, etc., shall be resolved by the bidder. It is mentioned in the document that the winning bidder must clearly state the charging standard, and the winning bidder shall be solely responsible for resolving disputes arising from improper charging, and the winning bidder shall bear the losses caused to the hospital.

  The reporter saw in the bid-winning announcement released in April 2021 that Beijing Paradise Beyond Funeral Service Co., Ltd. won the bid with a transaction amount of 300,000 yuan.

The bidding transaction announcement also shows that Beijing Paradise Beyond Funeral Service Co., Ltd. also won the bid for a mortuary contracting service project in a tertiary hospital in January 2021, with a transaction amount of 2.39 million yuan.

  According to the bidding rules, there are usually no less than 3 qualified bidders.

On the public service platform for bidding in China, the announcement on the comparison and selection of mortuary service projects of a hospital in Beijing released in March 2021 mentioned that the minimum management fee is 210,000 yuan per year.

In the announcement of the transaction results, the pre-transaction amount of the first transaction candidate supplier is 1.28 million yuan per year, the pre-transaction amount of the second transaction candidate supplier is 300,000 yuan, and the pre-transaction amount of the third transaction candidate supplier is 860,000 yuan. Yuan.

In the end, Beijing Babaoshan Tianyuan Funeral Service Center won the bid with 1.28 million yuan.

  Also in 2021, the company won the bid for another tertiary general hospital mortuary contracting service project, with a transaction amount of 1.99 million yuan.

According to the purchase contract, the construction area of ​​the hospital's mortuary mortuary is 200 square meters, the farewell room is about 40 square meters, and the office is about 20 square meters.

In 2018 and 2019, about 800 deaths were received each year.

  In August 2017, the transaction announcement for the mortuary contracting service project of the tertiary hospital showed that the supplier won the bid amounted to 610,000 yuan.

It can be seen from the competitive consultation documents that the construction area of ​​the mortuary in the hospital is also 200 square meters. The difference is that from 2014 to 2016, the average number of deaths per year was 650.

  In addition to hospitals, some outsourcing companies also provide services for nursing homes.

In the announcement of the transaction results of a hospital mortuary contracting service project released in 2017, a supplier participating in the bidding introduced in the recommendation reason that the company provides funeral services for not only many hospitals, but also many nursing homes.

Photo by the Beiwan Investigation Team