CRI听力:China's Hospital Reforms Full Steam Ahead

Among the highlights of the reforms is a ban on the price mark-up of drugs.

Fu Wei with the National Health and Family Planning Commission says it's key to establishing a new system that can make hospitals more accountable to the people they're trying to help.

"Measures are being taken to help establish more rational protocols in hospitals, including the ban on drug markups, as well as adjusting the pricing system, axing costs and increasing government funding."

An average 15-percent markup on drug sales is widely believed to have been encouraging hospitals to prescribe more medicine than is necessary in order to generate revenue, which drives up medical bills.

The central government began cracking down on drug markups in public hospitals three years ago.

But beyond that, Fu Wei notes it's more important, as well as difficult, to stop public hospitals from trying to generate excessive profits.

"The ban on drug markups is only the first step. It's also necessary to push forward with reforms of the government reimbursement system, as well as the price setting systems and how we manage the salaries of the medical staff."

Another issue being worked on is trying to address the shortfalls in actual medical services.

Multiple steps have been taken since April in the province of Anhui to try to streamline services in hospitals while encouraging patients with minor health issues to go to community-level clinics.

Yu Dezhi, the head of Anhui's provincial health department, says the results have been encouraging so far.

"The new measures ensure enough time for communication between patients and their doctors. They also make it easier for doctors to deal with a reduced number of patients."

The broader-based medical reforms are currently under way at around 3,000 county-level and 760 city-level hospitals across China.

They are expected to cover all county-level public hospitals by the end of August.

The reforms will be expanded to all public hospitals in 100 cities by year’s end.

For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.