China crack down on graft in health sector
By Mure Dickie (FT.com)
Updated: 2006-07-31 10:23
Ministry of Health of China is to ban hospitals from buying expensive medical
equipment on their own, a move that is part of a widening campaign against
corruption in the health sector, the Finacial Times reported Monday.
The imposition of a system of "collective purchasing" for medical devices costing
more than 2m yuan ($250,000) is also intended to prevent foreign suppliers
from selling relatively untried equipment in China, according to state
media. The new rules could hurt local sales of international suppliers such as
GE Healthcare and Philips Medical Systems, which see China as a strategically important
growth market, the report said.
The report said that China's medical equipment market has been forecast to grow from $1.2bn in
2005 to more than $12bn by 2010, but officials have grown concerned about
widespread corruption among those involved in purchasing decisions.
Doctors and administrators have been accused of taking kickbacks for ordering
equipment that is not needed or that is priced artificially high. Many hospitals
are thought to use advanced medical equipment to charge patients high rates for
unnecessary tests.
The official Xinhua news agency said collective equipment purchasing, which
would be organised by provincial-level governments, represented an “attack” on
corruption and bribe-taking. It quoted ministry officials as saying they planned
to authorise a national medical equipment association to review equipment and
issue standards for consideration by provincial purchasers.
"The first [goal] is to prevent hospitals from becoming 'test sites' for some
foreign medical equipment companies by taking equipment that has only recently
been registered overseas," Xinhua said.
The equipment reviews were intended to encourage hospitals
only to buy devices that were really needed, and thus to "naturally reduce" the number of unnecessary
tests ordered for patients, it said. But there is no guarantee
the rules will reduce corruption.
Courtesy of Mure
Dickie, the Financial Times
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