At the beginning of 2024, the wave of anti-corruption in medicine has set off rapidly.
On January 1, the official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued an article "In-depth Promotion of the High-quality Development of Discipline Inspection and Supervision Work in the New Journey".Resolutely win the fight against corruption", summarized the anti-corruption situation in 2023, and fired the first shot of the year; On January 8, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection released an article "Striving to Write a New Chapter in the High-quality Development of Discipline Inspection and Supervision Work on a New Journey", reviewing the national anti-corruption work in 2023, pointing out that in the fields of education, medical care, pension and social security, efforts will be made to eliminate corruption at the grassroots level and solve the most concerned and realistic interests of the masses.
Twice issued documents, emphasizing the intensification of the investigation and handling of cases in key areas such as medical care, and resolutely cleaning up industry-wide, systemic, and regional corruption with large risks and hidden dangers. Layers of signals continue to be released, focusing on the medical field, indicating that medical anti-corruption will continue to escalate in 2024.
Source: The official website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
It is proposed to "investigate bribery together".
On January 8, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued an article "Striving to Write a New Chapter in the High-quality Development of Discipline Inspection and Supervision Work on the New Journey", which looks forward to the anti-corruption work in 2024 and requires special rectification of industry-wide, systemic, and regional corruption issues, and insists on investigating bribery together.
On the evening of January 8, the speech of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th ** Commission for Discipline Inspection was announced. The speech clearly pointed out that it is necessary to intensify the rectification of corruption in areas where power is concentrated, capital intensive, and resource enrichment, such as finance, state-owned enterprises, energy, medicine, and infrastructure projects, and to eliminate risks and hidden dangers.
This is the first time that the pharmaceutical industry has been listed in parallel with the high-incidence areas of corruption such as finance and infrastructure projects, which shows that the anti-corruption in the pharmaceutical field has been raised to an unprecedented height. It was pointed out at the meeting that it is necessary to intensify the punishment of bribery. "Strictly investigate and deal with those who always pull cadres into the water and endanger one party, and report typical cases to set a positive example and set an example. ”
The reporter combed and found that on December 29, 2023, the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress passed the "Amendment (12) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China", which will be implemented from March 1, 2024. There are a total of seven amendments to this amendment, among which bribery in the fields of food and drugs, social security, and medical care is included in the list of key punishments.
To rectify corruption, in addition to blocking the first end, we must also control the bribery end. The Amendment (12) also clarifies the legal liability and punishment for bribe-givers. "Whoever commits the crime of offering bribes shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or short-term detention and shall also be fined. Where bribery is used to obtain improper benefits, and the circumstances are serious, or where major losses are caused to the interests of the state, a sentence of between three and ten years imprisonment and a concurrent fine is to be given. In particular, it should be noted that if "the circumstances are particularly serious, or the interests of the state are particularly seriously harmed, the sentence shall be fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment, and a fine or confiscation of property."
According to public information, from August 2023, all provinces and cities across the country have successively publicly solicited reporting clues on commercial bribery in the pharmaceutical field, covering all illegal acts of pharmaceutical companies, distributors, medical institutions and related staff, and the deadline is mostly set for June 2024. The industry generally believes that the next step of pharmaceutical anti-corruption work will be focused on punishing bribery.
Stricter supervision of the "number one".
Combing through past information, in July 2023, the medical anti-corruption led by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection was launched. Judging from the current progress in various places, the current round of medical anti-corruption has been continuing. In this storm of unprecedented depth, breadth and intensity, the whole field and chain of the pharmaceutical industry have been affected. In the following months, doctors' return of deductions, self-examination and self-correction of medical institutions, and strengthening compliance training by pharmaceutical companies became the norm, and doctors' salaries were reduced, academic conferences were postponed, and pharmaceutical companies laid off employees one after another.
At the Third Plenary Session of the 20th National Commission for Discipline Inspection, it was emphasized that it is necessary to further improve the anti-corruption laws and regulations. Focusing on the integration of the promotion of not daring to be corrupt, not being able to be corrupt, not wanting to be corrupt, etc., improve the basic laws and regulations, and improve and strengthen the supervision of the "number one" and the leadership group supporting system.
Strict investigation of the "number one" is also one of the characteristics of anti-corruption in medicine. In response to the rectification of corruption in the pharmaceutical field, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has repeatedly issued a first-class investigation, focusing on the key minority and strictly investigating the top leaders. According to incomplete statistics, there will be at least more than 200 "top leaders" in hospitals in 2023, and it has been previously reported that the medical field is extremely professional, with high technical barriers, strong concealment, and the determination of power is concentrated in the "top leader" of the unit, resulting in close collusion in the chain of interests and an increase in the number of corruption.
In October last year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission issued an article entitled "Multi-point Efforts to Solve the Problem of Supervision of the Top Leaders", which analyzed the bad impact of corruption on the "top leaders" and the necessity of strengthening the supervision of the "top leaders", and directly aimed the anti-corruption spearhead at the "top leaders" and "a few keys". Xu Yucai, a senior medical reform expert, believes that there are three stages in the centralized rectification of pharmaceutical anti-corruption, the first stage is self-examination and self-correction, the second stage is in-depth rectification, and the third stage is to establish rules and regulations.
Zhan Shuguang, a senior partner of Beijing Xinnuo Law Firm, believes in an interview that the focus of the next medical anti-corruption work is mainly on implementation. The relevant laws and regulations on medical anti-corruption have been relatively perfect, and it is still worth further exploring how to effectively connect them and maximize their effects.
Written by: Aoyi News reporter Lin Shiyan.