On March 1, the new Physicians Law came into effect, affecting doctors across the country

From March 1, a blockbuster medical law will come into effect, affecting doctors across the country.

On August 20, 2021, the 30th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted to pass the Medical Doctor Law of the People's Republic of China, which will come into force on March 1, 2022.

The industry believes that this blockbuster regulation will have a very significant impact on the practice of Chinese doctors in the future. In the era of the Physician Law, what new regulations have been ushered in by the multi-site practice of Chinese doctors?

Director Dian will take you back to the well-known medical reform expert Xu Yucai's interpretation of the multi-point practice policy of doctors in the era of physician law.

Part.01 Multi-site practice is written into the Physician Act

The provisions of the Physician Law on the multi-point practice policy of physicians directly affect the development of medical cities and doctor groups, and its promulgation marks the entry of mainland practicing physicians into the era of the Physician Law.

The newly promulgated "Physician Law" not only contains ten major highlights such as the cancellation of the regulations on the qualification of doctors with secondary school qualifications, the multi-point practice of physicians, the lifelong ban on business, the autonomy of diagnosis and treatment, the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of physicians, emergency rescue behavior, residency training and specialist training, etc., but also mentions that practicing assistant physicians can practice in remote or difficult county-level hospitals, while in the past, they were only allowed to practice independently in township health centers, and there are more new things in general.

As for the multi-point practice of physicians, in the past it was all policy regulations, but this time it is really into the law and is legally allowed, which is also a breakthrough.

Regarding the provisions on the multi-site practice of physicians, the Physician Law continues to follow the relevant contents of the Practicing Physician Law, such as the implementation of the physician practice registration system in the country, and physicians must be registered before they can engage in corresponding medical and health services in medical and health institutions.

Part.02 How are these provisions understood?

Article 15 of the Physicians Law stipulates that where physicians practice in two or more medical and health institutions on a regular basis, they shall mainly use one medical and health institution and go through relevant procedures in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State.

The State encourages physicians to periodically designate medical and health institutions below the county level, including township health centers, village clinics, community health service centers, and so forth, to provide medical and health services, and the main practice institutions shall support and provide facilitation.

This provision effectively continues the policy of multi-site practice for more than a decade.

Physician multi-point practice refers to practicing in more than two medical institutions, and this provision is mentioned in the new medical reform document, and it is also the task of the new medical reform.

The reasons for promoting the multi-site practice of physicians: promoting the rational allocation of medical resources and alleviating the difficulty of grass-roots people to see a doctor.

In the process of promoting the new medical reform, it is also constantly promoting multi-point practice, and since 2009, the state has successively introduced a number of policies. Although the national policy level is gradually relaxing the multi-site practice of physicians, the implementation is not as easy as imagined.

Why is it difficult for physicians to promote multi-site practice? On the one hand, the president of public medical institutions is not willing, on the other hand, it is related to the doctors themselves, and the doctors' unwillingness to practice more or their own ability is not enough.

The entry of physicians into the law is an improvement in itself, at least it is legally allowed, and in the long run, there are still many places worth exploring.

Part.03 How do physicians do a good job of multi-site practice?

The Physicians Act is beneficial to multi-site practice, including consultations and medical associations. There are three situations that need to be paid attention to when handling the relevant change registration procedures.

First, article 18 of the Physicians Law stipulates that physicians participating in standardized training, continuing education, counterpart support, consultation, emergency medical rescue, charity, or other public welfare medical treatment, free clinics, undertaking state tasks or participating in important activities organized by the government, and practicing in medical institutions within the medical consortium.

This provision actually opens up another avenue for the orderly flow of high-quality medical resources and multi-site practice. For example, medical associations, clinics, private medical institutions can be included in the medical federation formed by local public medical institutions, in this case, doctors of public medical institutions can not go through the procedures when they practice in multiple points in relevant medical institutions, which is an opportunity.

Physicians practice at the grass-roots level in many places, which are allowed by law and encouraged by policies, but the actual implementation process will not be so smooth.

Second, the regular assessment of physicians must attract sufficient attention. Because of the failure of regular assessments, the doctor's practice registration is prone to problems.

Third, physicians are regionally registered and multi-institutional. This is stipulated in the policy, but it is still an obstacle in the actual implementation process and in the provisions of the Current Physician Law. What is a regional registration? According to the policy provisions, the doctor can register in a province, but it is not the same as the practice of multiple institutions, and the procedures to be done are different, and the policy provisions are also different.

The director has something to say

Although the legal framework has been established, further exploration and efforts are needed in the future for practice locations, multi-institutional practice, freelance practice and freelance work.