Beijing in campaign to stop medical kickbacks
China has launched its strongest-ever campaign to crack down on corruption in the market for medical equipment and more tightly regulate hospital purchases of big-ticket devices, according to people in the industry.
The crackdown reflects concern about kickbacks and bribes taken by hospital staff buying medical equipment and fears that expensive, high-tech equipment is often used inappropriately.
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Since its launch in March, the campaign has been hitting sales of local medical equipment producers and is also likely to affect inter-national suppliers such as GE Healthcare and Philips Medical Systems, industry participants say.
"This is having a really big impact. Many medical equipment sales have been stopped, including some that are essential," said a manager at one Chinese manufacturer. "Anything that can be put on hold is on hold, so the whole market has turned very weak."
People in the industry said scores of hospital personnel had been arrested on suspicion of corruption in recent months and Communist party groups had been orga-nised to curb graft in the purchasing of equipment and medical drugs.
State media have forecast that China's medical equipment market will grow from $1.2bn in 2005 to $1.7bn this year and $12.5bn (￡6.8bn) by 2010.
The government has given few details of the scale of suspected graft, but one manager with long experience in the equipment business suggested kickbacks at some hospitals could be equivalent to 10-20 per cent of the amount paid for equipment.
"I don't think the government wants to report the actual amounts taken by most hospital directors, equipment department personnel and doctors," the manager said.
"The number would be amazingly high and very upsetting to the average Chinese."
The government has re-vised procurement processes for large medical equipment such as Computed Tomography (CT) scanners, which now require the approval of provincial authorities. Such approval may prove difficult to obtain.
The government is also trying to issue guideline prices for equipment andto investigate hospitals that appear to pay too much.
Concerns about the medical equipment market reflect wider and deep-seated problems in China's healthsector, which has been effectively privatised amidthe country's economic reforms.
Hospitals now fund themselves mainly out of sales of drugs and treatment - not all of which is neededby patients - and some staff have become used to supplementing meagre salaries with kickbacks.
中国发起“医疗反腐”
业内人士称，中国已经发起了有史以来最为坚决的运动，以打击医疗设备市场的腐败行为，并加强对医院采购高价医疗设备的监管。
这场反腐运动反映出人们的两大忧虑，一是医院职工在采购医疗设备时收取回扣与贿赂，二是昂贵的高技术设备经常使用不当。
业内人士表示，自3月份开展专项治理工作以来，不仅已对国内医疗设备制造商的销售造成冲击，还可能累及通用电气医疗集团(GE Healthcare)和飞利浦医疗系统(Philips Medical Systems)等国际供应商。
“这确实产生了巨大影响。许多医疗设备销售被喊停，包括一些必需设备，”一家中国制造商的经理表示。“所有能够暂停的销售都暂停了，整个市场因此变得非常疲软。”
业内人士表示，近几个月来，已有几十名医院职工因涉嫌腐败被逮捕，此外还设立了共产党组织，来打击医疗设备和药物采购过程中的贪污受贿行为。
中国官方媒体曾预测，中国医疗设备市场今年的销售额将从2005年的12亿美元增至17亿美元，到2010年将达到125亿美元。
政府没有透露贪污受贿的大致规模，不过，一位长期在医疗设备公司工作的经理暗示，在某些医院，回扣可能相当于医疗器械采购额的10%-20%。
“我想，政府并不打算报道大多数医院主管、医疗设备部门人员和医生贪污受贿的实际数额，”这位经理说道。“对中国老百姓而言，这个数目可能会高得吓人。”
中国政府已经修订了电脑断层扫描仪(CT)等大型医疗设备的采购程序，现在要求，购进这些设备需获得省级主管部门的批准。要得到这种批准可能会非常困难。某家外国医疗设备供应企业的一位经理表示，有些省级官员认为，中国已经有了太多的CT扫描仪。
政府还在努力为医疗设备制定指导价，并将调查那些采购费显然过高的医院。
对医疗设备市场的关注，反映了中国医疗领域广泛而深层次的问题。在中国经济改革的过程中，医疗卫生领域实际上已经私有化了。
医院的收入目前主要来自药物销售和治疗收费（这些药物和治疗方案往往并非都是病患所需要的），而一些员工已经习惯靠回扣来贴补微薄的工资。
