The COVID-19 Run on Medical Resources in Wuhan China: Causes, Consequences and Lessons
The COVID-19 run on medical resources crashed Wuhan’s medical care system, a medical disaster duplicated in many countries facing the COVID-19 pandemic. In a novel approach to understanding the run on Wuhan’s medical resources, we draw from bank run theory to analyze the causes and consequences of t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Healthcare |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/9/10/1362 |
| _version_ | 1797514462768398336 |
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| author | Gaofeng Yin Hanning Song Jian Wang Stephen Nicholas Elizabeth Maitland |
| author_facet | Gaofeng Yin Hanning Song Jian Wang Stephen Nicholas Elizabeth Maitland |
| author_sort | Gaofeng Yin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The COVID-19 run on medical resources crashed Wuhan’s medical care system, a medical disaster duplicated in many countries facing the COVID-19 pandemic. In a novel approach to understanding the run on Wuhan’s medical resources, we draw from bank run theory to analyze the causes and consequences of the COVID-19 run on Wuhan’s medical resources and recommend policy changes and government actions to attenuate runs on medical resources in the future. Like bank runs, the cause of the COVID-19 medical resource run was rooted in China’s local medical resource context and a sudden realignment of expectations, reflecting shortages and misallocations of hospital resources (inadequate liquidity and portfolio composition); high level hospitals siphoning-off patients from lower level health providers (bank moral hazard and adverse selection problem); patients selecting high-level hospitals over lower-level health care (depositor moral hazard problem); inadequate government oversight and uncontrolled risky hospital behavior (inadequate bank regulatory control); biased medical insurance schemes (inadequate depositor insurance); and failure to provide medical resource reserves (failure as lender of last resort). From Wuhan’s COVID-19 run on medical resources, we recommend that control and reform by government enlarge medical resource supply, improve the capacity of primary medical care, ensure timely virus information, formulate principles for the allocation of medical resources that suit a country’s national conditions, optimize the medical insurance schemes and public health fund allocations and enhance the emergency support of medical resources. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:31:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a3e14a9454a24256a0c194401cc8a292 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9032 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:31:59Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Healthcare |
| spelling | doaj.art-a3e14a9454a24256a0c194401cc8a2922023-11-22T18:25:51ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322021-10-01910136210.3390/healthcare9101362The COVID-19 Run on Medical Resources in Wuhan China: Causes, Consequences and LessonsGaofeng Yin0Hanning Song1Jian Wang2Stephen Nicholas3Elizabeth Maitland4Dong Fureng Institute of Economic and Social Development, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, ChinaSchool of Banking and Finance, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, ChinaDong Fureng Institute of Economic and Social Development, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, ChinaAustralian National Institute of Management and Commerce, Sydney 2015, AustraliaSchool of Management, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L697ZH, UKThe COVID-19 run on medical resources crashed Wuhan’s medical care system, a medical disaster duplicated in many countries facing the COVID-19 pandemic. In a novel approach to understanding the run on Wuhan’s medical resources, we draw from bank run theory to analyze the causes and consequences of the COVID-19 run on Wuhan’s medical resources and recommend policy changes and government actions to attenuate runs on medical resources in the future. Like bank runs, the cause of the COVID-19 medical resource run was rooted in China’s local medical resource context and a sudden realignment of expectations, reflecting shortages and misallocations of hospital resources (inadequate liquidity and portfolio composition); high level hospitals siphoning-off patients from lower level health providers (bank moral hazard and adverse selection problem); patients selecting high-level hospitals over lower-level health care (depositor moral hazard problem); inadequate government oversight and uncontrolled risky hospital behavior (inadequate bank regulatory control); biased medical insurance schemes (inadequate depositor insurance); and failure to provide medical resource reserves (failure as lender of last resort). From Wuhan’s COVID-19 run on medical resources, we recommend that control and reform by government enlarge medical resource supply, improve the capacity of primary medical care, ensure timely virus information, formulate principles for the allocation of medical resources that suit a country’s national conditions, optimize the medical insurance schemes and public health fund allocations and enhance the emergency support of medical resources.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/9/10/1362COVID-19 pandemicmedical resource runsbank runs |
| spellingShingle | Gaofeng Yin Hanning Song Jian Wang Stephen Nicholas Elizabeth Maitland The COVID-19 Run on Medical Resources in Wuhan China: Causes, Consequences and Lessons Healthcare COVID-19 pandemic medical resource runs bank runs |
| title | The COVID-19 Run on Medical Resources in Wuhan China: Causes, Consequences and Lessons |
| title_full | The COVID-19 Run on Medical Resources in Wuhan China: Causes, Consequences and Lessons |
| title_fullStr | The COVID-19 Run on Medical Resources in Wuhan China: Causes, Consequences and Lessons |
| title_full_unstemmed | The COVID-19 Run on Medical Resources in Wuhan China: Causes, Consequences and Lessons |
| title_short | The COVID-19 Run on Medical Resources in Wuhan China: Causes, Consequences and Lessons |
| title_sort | covid 19 run on medical resources in wuhan china causes consequences and lessons |
| topic | COVID-19 pandemic medical resource runs bank runs |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/9/10/1362 |
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