Recently, the General Office of the National Health Commission ("NHC") has distributed the Circular on Further Strengthening Management of the Safety of Patients (the "Circular").
The Circular lays down five tasks in relation to the management of patient safety, including "improving the system of rules regarding the management of patients' safety", calling for efforts to make improvements first to certain areas, such as recognition of patents' identifies, drug use, and management of the perioperative period, to ensure patients are in a safe condition. Further, the Circular proposes to optimize the management system for rules on patient safety, and formulate (amend) relevant rules, norms, standards and guides on the management of patient safety and update the same in due time; and the medical services shall also be regularized as well, and the application of medical devices in clinical treatment will be subject to whole-process management. Moreover, the Circular states that medical institutions shall step up management of internal departments and units exposed to high risks, such as the obstetrics department, the emergency department and the intensive care unit, tighten management of key work, including recognition of patients' identities, safety of drug use, and reviews of surgeries' safety, and take an active approach to the consultation of drug use, intervention on drug use, and monitoring and evaluation of whether drugs are used properly.