Interfering in the procurement of medical equipment, many leaders fell from power

October 25, 2024  Source: drugdu 48

"/On October 21, the Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision reported 10 typical cases of corruption in the bidding field, including the intervention and intervention of Yin Yuying, former Party Secretary and Chairman of the Huaihua Municipal CPPCC, in medical equipment procurement projects. From 2015 to 2023, Yin Yuying used his position to greet the head of a hospital, and the hospital set the bidding threshold, informed a private business owner of the procurement brand information in advance, and provided assistance to him in undertaking a hospital's medical distribution project and large-aperture CT equipment procurement project, and accepted huge amounts of money and property from him.
Yin Yuying also had other serious violations of discipline and law, and has been expelled from the party and removed from public office. His suspected crimes have been transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution in accordance with the law. On October 17, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Commission of Nanning City, Guangxi Province, issued a "Notice on Three Typical Cases of Unhealthy Trends and Corruption Among the Masses", revealing that Huang Ke, the former Party Secretary of the Seventh People's Hospital of Nanning, sought personal gain in the procurement of medical equipment and construction of engineering projects.

From 2009 to 2024, Huang Ke used his position as the president, executive president, and party secretary of the Seventh People's Hospital of Nanning to provide assistance to others in the procurement of medical equipment and construction of engineering projects in the hospital, and illegally accepted huge amounts of property from others. Huang Ke also had other serious violations of discipline and law. In September 2024, Huang Ke was expelled from the party and removed from public office, and his suspected crimes were transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution in accordance with the law.
From administrative leaders to hospital leaders, key figures with decision-making power in the equipment procurement process have always been the focus of medical anti-corruption.
Project procurement in the pharmaceutical field is one of the focuses of this year's pharmaceutical rectification. The Notice on Issuing the Key Points for Correcting Unhealthy Trends in the Field of Pharmaceutical Procurement and Sales and Medical Services in 2024 requires further improvement of the medical equipment procurement policies of medical institutions at all levels. Efforts should be made to strengthen the governance of commercial bribery in the field of pharmaceutical procurement and sales, and keep a close eye on the risks in the pharmaceutical field with concentrated power, intensive funds, and rich resources, such as project bidding, catalog compilation, price determination, and project application.

A recent article by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection mentioned that in the pharmaceutical field, we should focus on key areas, key positions, important tasks, and important links, keep a close eye on key people and key matters, and deepen and expand the results of the concentrated rectification of corruption and unhealthy trends in the pharmaceutical field. Since 2024, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has issued intensive documents on corruption in bidding, and many types of illegal intervention methods have been exposed one after another. Various targeted anti-corruption breakthroughs in bidding have been clarified, such as discriminatory clauses, bid rigging, setting up local protection, collusion with bid evaluation experts, etc., and related inspections are also being launched simultaneously.

A new round of inspections of large hospitals was launched in December last year and will be completed by the end of October 2026. "Whether to strengthen supervision of the 'key few' and key positions" and "whether to establish a monitoring and early warning system and supervision mechanism for key nodes such as large medical equipment" are listed as inspection priorities. So far, 18 provinces (cities, autonomous regions) have issued inspection plans for large hospitals, including: Guizhou, Sichuan, Hainan, Henan, Heilongjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Tianjin, Guangdong, Hunan, Shandong, Shanghai, Hebei, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Xinjiang.

In addition to conducting inspections on large hospitals, various places are also launching special medical rectification actions. The Discipline Inspection and Supervision Commission of Beiliu City, Guangxi Province, dug deep and investigated the clues of the problem, and found that Long, the former head of the Equipment Department of the Municipal People's Hospital, received bribes from suppliers and illegally intervened in the procurement of medical equipment and medical consumables. So far, Guangxi has filed 712 cases, punished 514 people, transferred 36 people, and recovered 493 million yuan of illegal income.

At this year's National Audit Work Conference, it was made clear that medical anti-corruption is one of the key areas of concern. With the audit department joining the medical rectification team, the supervision port of medical equipment procurement has moved forward again, and many places have disclosed the results of related actions. Anhui carried out follow-up audits on national regional medical center construction projects. It was found that 4 projects in 2 hospitals set unreasonable restrictive clauses in the bidding terms, excluding and treating potential bidders differently; 1 hospital and 1 project specified some materials and equipment reference brands (models) during bidding.

The Zhejiang Provincial Audit Office found that the equipment procurement of 13 projects in 5 public hospitals at the provincial level and 2 cities and counties had problems such as suppliers determined before bidding, tailor-made bidding terms, and inconsistent bidding content with contract content, involving a project amount of 122 million yuan. In the context of strict anti-corruption, the transfer of interests in the medical field has shown a trend of concealed development, and the supervision chain around commercial bribery is constantly extending, and the investigation of bribery and corruption is strengthened.

Recently, the Jiangxi Provincial Market Supervision Administration issued the "Compliance Guidelines for Anti-Commercial Bribery in the Pharmaceutical Industry", clarifying that "giving improper benefits to medical institutions or their internal departments and practitioners through sponsorship or donations" is suspected of commercial bribery.
In July this year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection published an article titled "How to Qualify Targeted Procurement Services after Accepting Medical Equipment "Donations"", which mentioned that a few companies used the banner of donations to engage in commercial bribery to seek transaction opportunities or competitive advantages, and that "donations" with attached targeted procurement conditions were commercial bribery to seek transaction opportunities and competitive advantages. From the overall to the details, the supervision of medical equipment procurement has been comprehensively upgraded.

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