China's Ministry of Health is tightening controls over hospital
procurement in an effort to fight corruption and to improve the
viability of costly purchases.
Public hospitals at the county level and above and nonprofit
medical institution attached to state owned enterprises must now
collectively purchase medical equipment, He Jinguo, deputy director
of the ministry's financial planning department, said Friday at a
news conference.
By forcing hospitals to make collective purchases, He said there
will be less chance for officials to take kickbacks.
The purchase of a piece of medical equipment worth more
than 2 million yuan (US$250,000) should be organized by
provincial health departments, He said.
He said the ministry will also evaluate medical equipment on the
market to provide technical references in order to reduce
purchasing costs for hospitals.
The new purchasing plan is part of China's campaign to crack
down on commercial bribery in the drug and medical equipment
businesses, which sometime provide commissions to health workers
and hospital administrators.
"The Ministry of Health has given the China Association of
Medical Equipment (CAME) responsibility for conducting evaluations
and publishing the results," He said. "Standards of medical
equipment will be recommended to all health departments so that
their investment in health care equipment can be better
realized."
The purposes of the evaluations are to prevent some foreign
medical equipment companies from using Chinese hospitals as testing
ground and to guide hospitals purchase suitable medical devices
that meet their demands, said Zhao Zilin, deputy director of the
financial planning department.
"Some foreign companies sell their equipment so that Chinese
hospitals can provide technical data for them," Zhao said.
He also said that some county-level hospitals purchase expensive
equipment and give patients unnecessary tests adding to the cost of
their treatment. "Expensive, high-tech equipment is often used
inappropriately in these hospitals," said Zhao.
China's medical equipment market is expected to grow from US$1.2
billion in 2005 to US$1.7 billion this year.
(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2006)