Authorities in hospitals crackdown
Print Edition
HOSPITALS must not rent out departments or engage in false and misleading advertising, authorities said yesterday, in the wake of a scandal involving a military hospital and a student who died after experimental cancer treatment failed.
China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission also ordered regional health authorities to investigate all their hospitals and work with local commercial and industrial bureaus to identify and crack down on such activities.
At a video conference, it emphasized that medical technologies that were not allowed in clinical practice because of the risks involved must only be carried out on a trial basis and follow relevant regulations.
Regulations state that medical trials must have the patient’s approval and be free of charge.
Among those taking part in the conference were leading officials of regional health authorities and presidents of district and city-level hospitals.
On Wednesday, the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corps closed its doors to new patients, a day after health authorities launched an investigation into the case of 21-year-old Wei Zexi who died last month of a rare form of cancer. He had accused online search engine Baidu of promoting false medical information and the hospital for misleading advertisements that claimed a high success rate for the treatment he received at its biotherapeutic center.
After major public hospitals told him there was no effective treatment for synovial sarcoma, Wei said in online posts that he found the center through Baidu and was persuaded by its claims regarding a therapy which uses cells generated by the patient’s own immune system to counter the illness. The treatment cost the Wei family around 200,000 yuan (US$31,000).
Wei published details of his treatment online in March. He died on April 12.
An initial investigation found that the center at the hospital was run by KangXin Hospital Investment and Management Co, a company registered in Shanghai and owned by a private business in Putian in Fujian Province.
According to media reports, Putian is known for the number of businesses based there which profit from running private hospitals and clinics, and which also practice medicine by renting departments from military hospitals.
In China, military hospitals fall under the jurisdiction of military authorities.
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