Draft law aims to better protect doctors' rights

Behaviors that infringe or harm the dignity, personal safety and freedom of doctors, such as insults, slander, threats or assaults, must be prohibited, a spokesman from China's top legislature said when he introduced a draft law on Friday.

The draft law on doctors will be submitted to a session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, which will open on Monday, for a second review.

In response to frequent incidents in which doctors and medical staff members were seriously harmed in recent years, Zang Tiewei, the spokesman of the Legislative Affairs Commission with the NPC Standing Committee, said the draft has made some improvements to further protect the legitimate rights of doctors.

He said the draft highlights that doctors' dignity and personal safety are inviolable, with clarification that neither organizations nor individuals could disturb doctors' work and lives.

Meanwhile, the draft also strengthens regulations on doctors. "For example, it requires that doctors not provide fake medical documents and not give excessive treatment or overtreatment to patients," Zang said.

Additionally, those who obtain doctors' qualification certificates or doctor licenses through improper means will not be able to reapply during a period of three years.