Guide
After a hospital visit in China
Patients say the hardest part comes after they leave: records they can't get, receipts their insurer won't take, no one to follow up. Most of it is solved before you walk out of the hospital.
Facts checked 9 October 2026. Sources at the end of the page.
Before you leave
Copies are made with you there, so get them before you go home.
- Copies of your records (you or a relative must be there)
- Scans on disc or as a download link
- Receipts and the follow-up plan
English documents for your insurer
- No hospital we checked confirms an English itemized receipt. We translate the Chinese one for you, and can ask your insurer whether it accepts translations.
- These hospitals confirm an English medical report:
Follow-up online
National rules for internet hospitals.
- Online visits are only for follow-up of a condition already diagnosed in person; a first visit can't be online.
- The rules don't say whether a patient outside China can be seen online. Ask the hospital before you leave.
If something went wrong
The formal routes, in order.
- Every hospital must run a complaint office and post how to reach it. Start there.
- Shanghai's district medical-dispute mediation committees mediate for free; you can apply alone, in writing or orally, and public hospitals must take part. For a claim over CNY 30,000 the hospital must tell you this route exists.
- The district health commission can also mediate: it decides within 5 working days whether to take the case, and finishes within 30.
- Court is open at any point.
Once you're home
- Everything translated into English
- Your insurance claim, filed with you
- Follow-up booked, and help if something went wrong
Sources
Ask about your case.
Tell us what you need. A person replies by email with the hospital, the date and the full price.