The Jiangxi provincial government recently released the Notice on Accelerating County-Level Public Hospital Comprehensive Reform, which says a policy of zero-profit drug selling will be applied in all county-level public hospitals. Basic medication purchases should not be lower than 50 percent of the total medication purchase.

According to the notice, except for Chinese herbal medicine and pharmaceutical preparation in hospitals, all drugs sold in county-level public hospitals will be subject to the zero-profit policy. Thus the hospitals will suffer a loss of revenues, 80 percent of which will be compensated by adjusting medical service prices while the other 20 percent will be covered by subsidies issued by provincial government and county governments.

The notice said that Jiangxi province will check and set the total number of personnel in county-level public hospitals in a scientific and reasonable way, exploring a personnel registration system and adjustment mechanism.

A salary system based on performance will be launched for all staff members in those hospitals. Salary expenses should not be lower than 40 percent of the total expenses in those hospitals, and the bonus based on performance will not be lower than 60 percent of an employee’s total salary, the notice said.

The notice allows county-level public hospitals to spend 50 percent of their profits for the hospital’s development and the other 50 percent of the profits could be used as additional bonus for their employees. An annual salary system is encouraged in those hospitals.

According to the notice, Jiangxi province will improve the enter-exit system for institutions, personnel, technology and equipment. For the medical insurance system, the supervision on medicine use and medical examination will be improved. Main indicators related to medical insurance in those hospitals will be well researched and supervised, said the notice.

Before the end of this year, Jiangxi province will release 16 documents of supporting policies for the reform, including those for hierarchical diagnosis system, personnel arrangement, fund control, ability construction and performance assessment, with details of departments responsible and a timetable. County-level public hospital comprehensive reform will be included in the government performance assessment system, according to the notice.