Bogus goods, bogus certificates, bogus tickets, bogus wine or bogus brand products, these things are nothing new.

But a bogus ambulance? Wang Yuanlu, 74, died from blood loss, internal injuries and brain trauma on Monday in Beijing, after an unregistered ambulance picked him up and took him to a neurological hospital that didn't have the proper facilities to treat him, reported the Beijing News.

Wang was run down by a motorcycle while he was crossing the street in Cangshang, Shunyi District.

Wang Shicai, son of the victim Wang Yuanlu, sits at the Beijing Zhong'ao Neurological Hospital Tuesday June 20, 2006. [Beijing News]

He was conscious and could still speak immediately after the accident, motorist Wang Laichen told the newspaper. But ten minutes later, Wang started to writhe in pain on the ground, prompting the motorcyclist to call 120 for an ambulance at 8:16 p.m.

After making the call, someone who claimed to be from the emergency center called the motorcyclist's phone asking for the exact location of the accident.

About ten minutes later, an ambulance bearing the emergency 120 sign arrived and carried Wang and his son Shicai away, while the motorcyclist waited at the site for traffic police.

While waiting the motorcyclist saw something unusual. "Less than five minutes later another ambulance came," he said. "It left within minutes after finding that the injured person had already been taken away."

Wang was driven to Beijing Zhong'ao Neurological Hospital, some 24 kilometers away, where all he received in terms of treatment was a transfusion and a series of X-rays over the course of an hour, according to his son.

Zhong'ao is four kilometers farther from the traffic accident site than Shunyi District Hospital, the best in the region, he said. There is also a better hospital around seven or eight kilometers away.

"Why was the victim sent to this farther, smaller hospital instead of the best, or the nearest one?" Wang's friend Xu, who also went to the hospital, asked.

Seeing the lack of effective treatment, Xu asked to transfer Wang to the nearby Shunyi District Hospital, but the doctors refused.

The doctors eventually gave in, but said that either another ambulance or a taxi had to be called. Xu argued, and eventually a hospital official intervened and Wang was taken to the next hospital, where he was announced dead at 11:15 p.m., nearly three hours after the original accident.

Doctors at the Shunyi District hospital told Wang's son that if he had arrived earlier, there was a good chance he could have been saved.

The bills from Zhong'ao cost approximately 1,000 yuan.

Wang is not the only patient to be taken to Zhong'ao by its own ambulance.

Two doctors of the hospital's emergency treatment department and a driver were seen by Beijing News reporters Tuesday afternoon using the ambulance to bring in a man with leg injuries.

The man demanded a transfer to another hospital and was refused use of the Zhong'ao ambulance. His relative had to call 999, the number for the Beijing Red Cross.

Doctors at Zhong'ao declined to answer questions about their refusal to use their ambulance for patient transfer, but confirmed the hospital's ownership of the ambulance.

However, officials at the Shunyi District Health Bureau told reporters Zhong'ao is not authorized to run an ambulance with the 120 Beijing Emergency Center.

The 999 emergency center doesn't have a subcenter in the Zhong'ao Hospital, either, chinadaily.com.cn reporter learned from the 999 center.

Zhong'ao hospital records acquired by Beijing News reporters show that the ambulance went out to pick up patients in each of the past three days.

Gong, Zhong'ao's head administrator's assistant, admitted that an ambulance with the 120 sign was in use at the hospital, but had no knowledge about how they got it or how they got 120 emergency information. "Maybe the emergency center is on good terms with us and lends us one ambulance," he said.

Local health authorities and the 120 Beijing Emergency Center have demanded a probe into the matter.

It is illegal for any person or unit other than those authorized to use the 120 emergency sign on their vehicles, said a Beijing Emergency Center public relations official.

If the Zhong'ao ambulance is found to have been lent to the hospital by a Beijing Emergency Center staff member, the staff member will face severe punishment, the official added.

The official was also puzzled as to how the hospital learned of Wang's accident in the first place. "This needs investigation," she said.