Hospital Staff Salaries Set for ‘Dynamic Adjustment’ in New Round of Reforms

There has been slow progress since 2009 in reform of medical professionals’ employment conditions, which have been blighted by issues related to long hours and low pay. Photo: VCG

Extensive reforms of salary systems in China’s cash-strapped public hospitals will soon be carried out nationwide, the country’s top health authority said.

The reforms will include “reasonable determination and dynamic adjustment” of salary levels at public hospitals, an official said, so payments comply with medical professionals’ work.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, passed guidelines for the reforms in June and they will be published soon, Zhu Hongbiao, an official with the National Health Commission’s department of health care reform, said at a press conference (link in Chinese) Tuesday. The National Health Commission will guide promotion of the reforms by local authorities, he said.

The Tuesday announcement came after the State Council issued a document (link in Chinese) in June about promoting the high-quality development of public hospitals, including reform of salary distribution systems.

There has been slow progress since 2009 in reform of medical professionals’ employment conditions, which have been blighted by issues related to long hours and low pay. Though public hospitals are partially subsidized by the state, they still struggle to make enough money and face difficulties in raising salaries levels or handing out additional benefits to staff.

In 2017, four government agencies jointly issued (link in Chinese) a document to launch one-year pilot reforms of salary systems in public hospitals. And last year, the State Council issued a document (link in Chinese) calling for comprehensive implementation of the reforms.

Xu Shuqiang, head of the National Health Commission’s Department of Health Care Reform, told the press conference that the city of Sanming, East China’s Fujian province, had seen positive results from its reforms and they would be an example for other cities to follow.

Medical workers had their income increased, Xu said, and the expenditure on employees had been raised to 46% of hospitals’ total expenditure, an increase from the previous figure of 25%.

Contact reporter Cai Xuejiao (xuejiaocai@caixin.com) and editor Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com)

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