China provides update on county-level hospital reform efforts

China expects public hospital reforms for 100 cities to be completed by the end of December, with the government also seeing an October start to a massive job of changing the way county-level hospitals operate, China Daily said, citing a National Health and Family Planning Commission report at a press conference. The newspaper cited Fu Wei, deputy director-general of the Commission's Healthcare Reform, saying that 1,463 counties across China have started the reforms at 3,297 public hospitals, and a pilot reform in 100 cities has seen 61 of them starting the reforms at 764 hospitals. China Daily said that as part of the efforts, 3,077 county hospitals and 446 urban ones have abolished the system of selling drugs at higher than wholesale price, and 224 cities across China have adjusted their costs. Report