A private traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Zhengzhou, the capital of central China’s Henan province, is being investigated for allegedly requiring its staff to recruit new patients, The Beijing News reported Monday.

Administrators at Zhengzhou West Area Hospital of TCM reportedly ordered each staff member to bring in five additional patients to be hospitalized, and said those who failed to meet the quota would have their salaries docked by 200 yuan ($28). One staff member told a local TV station last week that she had even brought her father in to be “treated.”

According to a code of conduct published by the Ministry of Health in 2012, medical workers are required to “safeguard patients’ legitimate rights and interests” and are forbidden from exploiting their positions for personal gain.

Song Zhigang, the hospital’s vice president, has been suspended from his duties for “problematic management,” and a larger, public hospital that entered into a partnership with Zhengzhou West in late May has ordered its sister institution to make the necessary rectifications or see the cooperation agreement terminated. An administrator at the public hospital told The Paper, Sixth Tone’s sister publication, that his staff are being mobilized to investigate Zhengzhou West.

Public hospitals have long dominated China’s health care sector, but they’ve also earned a reputation for being resource-strapped and overburdened. Following a series of major health reforms in 2017, the central government has begun encouraging the development of the private health care industry to ease the burden on both public hospitals and welfare funds. (Image: 郑州楼市 on WeChat)