Government and Policy

Quicker reporting of medical accidents demanded

By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-02-09 07:55

Beijing - China's top health authorities have ordered "honest, accurate and timely" reporting of medical accidents by medical institutions and administrations across the nation in the latest effort to make medical practices safer.

The regulation, which was issued by the Ministry of Health and will take effect in April, stipulates that all medical institutions have to report to local health administrations their medical errors and accidents.

The regulation stipulates that accidents will be divided into three grades based on their severity.

The top grade, involving serious patient deformity or the deaths of more than three people, has to be reported by the hospital within two hours of it occurring, the regulations stipulates. Anyone, including hospital heads and local health department heads, who violates the regulation will be held accountable and punished accordingly, it says.

Accidents and disputes settled in private by patients and hospitals must also be reported.

The required information will be reported via a Web-based direct reporting network connecting large hospitals nationwide and all medical administrations above the county level, it says. The network will be kept by the Ministry of Health, which will rank medical institutions in terms of medical accidents and make the results public.

Despite existing rules and regulations to ensure safety in medical procedures, medical accidents and disputes still abound in the country, some even involving serious violence.

Ten medical staff at Xinhua Hospital affiliated to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine were injured on Jan 31 when 20 relatives of a man who died in the hospital attacked them.

"A strict medical accident reporting and accountability system will help to reduce such tragedies," said Vice-Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei.

In China, all medical institutions, except those affiliated with the military, are subject to management and supervision by local health administrations.

A 2005 study by the China Hospital Management Association based on a survey of 270 medical institutes across the country showed that large public hospitals had on average 20 to 30 medical disputes each year.

They each spend about 1 million yuan ($152,000) a year on patient compensation, the study found.

More than 73 percent of the polled hospitals said their staff members had suffered verbal abuse and violence in such disputes.

China Daily

(China Daily 02/09/2011 page3)