Author: Medical Law Hui
Recently, the "sky-high funeral fee in the morgue of a third-class hospital in Beijing" has aroused heated discussion, and the body spent more than 38,000 yuan in the morgue for less than 3 days. Coincidentally, another netizen also exposed a similar experience, also in this hospital, the body was parked for three days, and at the time of settlement, he was told to pay nearly 20,000 yuan in funeral service fees. In response to this incident, the hospital said that the funeral company entered the hospital to provide services for the deceased through formal procedures for bidding.
On April 10, the official microblog of the Information Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs @ Civil Affairs Weibo released a message that the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision and Law Enforcement Corps, together with the Haidian District Law Enforcement Brigade, immediately attacked, and went to the morgue of the hospital involved in the field inspection in the morning of the same day to verify the charges for funeral services, and collected evidence of funeral services related to charges on the spot. After preliminary verification, Beijing Paradise Xianghe Funeral Service Co., Ltd., which contracted the morgue of the hospital, was suspected of price violations in the process of charging funeral services. In the next step, the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision and Law Enforcement Corps will set up a joint investigation team to file a case against the companies involved in the case, find out the illegal facts as soon as possible, and investigate and deal with them quickly and strictly in accordance with the law, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the masses, and ensure a good funeral consumption environment.
(Source: Civil Affairs Weibo)
On April 11, the hospital issued a document saying that it attached great importance to this, set up a special team, actively cooperated with the relevant government departments to conduct in-depth investigations, and resolutely rectified according to requirements. He also expressed his sincerity to accept the supervision of all sectors of society, reflect deeply, earnestly perform their duties, strengthen management, and do a good job in follow-up work in accordance with laws and regulations.
(Source: Peking University Third Hospital Weibo)
At this point, the incident is still under investigation.
A morgue is a place used in a medical institution or funeral service facility for the temporary storage of remains. The place where the sky-high funeral fee was incurred was the morgue in the medical institution. According to the relevant regulations, after the death of the patient in the medical institution, the body should be immediately removed to the morgue and disposed of in a timely manner. It is strictly forbidden to park the remains in other places of medical institutions other than the morgue without the permission of the medical institution. Therefore, in a sense, the morgue of medical institutions is in a "monopoly" position, and after the interests behind it are infinitely magnified, the resulting management and charging chaos emerges in an endless stream.
Lawyer Daniel Zhang, founder of the medical legal team of Medical Law Hui, believes that this incident is not only the problem of Beijing Paradise Xianghe Funeral Service Co., Ltd., which contracted the hospital's morgue, but also the suspected price violation in the process of charging funeral services, but also the failure of medical institutions to supervise and fail to ignore.
First, on the issue of the management of morgues in medical institutions. The "Duties of Hospital Staff" clearly stipulates that the chief of the General Affairs Section is responsible for the logistics of the whole hospital and supervises the inspection staff to do a good job in the management of the morgue. Special provisions are also made for the duties of mortuary workers. The "Hospital Work System and Personnel Duties" also stipulates that the chief of the General Affairs Section is responsible for supervising and inspecting the staff of the morgue to do a good job in the management of the morgue. In order to strengthen the management of the clothes and morgues of the deceased in medical institutions, the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau issued the Regulations on the Management of The Clothing of the Deceased in Medical Institutions and the Morgues of Hospitals in April 2007, which clearly stipulates that medical institutions at all levels should strengthen the management of morgues in medical institutions. Accordingly, the hospital has the responsibility for the management of its internal morgue, which is subordinate to the hospital logistics management system and managed by the General Affairs Department of the hospital.
Secondly, on the issue of funeral services in morgues. In order to strengthen the management of the funeral industry and promote the healthy and orderly development of the funeral industry, 16 departments, including the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Central Civilization Office, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Public Security, jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Further Promoting Funeral Reform and Promoting the Development of the Funeral Industry (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions" of the 16 departments) in January 2018, which clearly stipulates that funeral service institutions should fully implement the system of fee publicity and clear price marking, strictly implement government pricing and government guidance prices, and sign service contracts with the families of the deceased. Issue legal settlement bills to ensure that low-priced funeral services and supplies are provided in sufficient quantities, and it is strictly forbidden to induce, bundle, or force consumption. The Guiding Opinions emphasize the need to "strengthen the management of hospital morgues and strictly prohibit for-profit funeral services in morgues." Therefore, it is clearly a violation for the hospital involved to contract a morgue to others to carry out for-profit funeral services.
Third, on the issue of rental or contracting of morgues in medical institutions. According to the Regulations on the Management of Clothing for the Deceased in Medical Institutions and the Management of Hospital Morgues issued by the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau in April 2007, Beijing municipality does not prohibit the contracting of morgues in medical institutions, but it requires medical institutions at all levels to strengthen the management of morgues in medical institutions, and prohibits all kinds of personnel in medical institutions from privately selling, selling and transferring clothes for the deceased. It is particularly emphasized that where the hospital morgue is contracted to the outside world, the hospital must strictly perform the management and supervision responsibilities of Party A.
Although the medical institutions in this incident did not violate the regulations of Beijing Municipality, they obviously had the fault of supervision and dereliction of duty, and the contracting unit carried out for-profit funeral services in the hospital morgue and collected sky-high funeral fees not only violated the provisions of the "Guiding Opinions" of the 16 departments, but also was suspected of price violations, and the hospitals involved had unshirkable responsibility.
After inquiry, medical law hui found that although there are no explicit provisions on hospital morgue contracting at the national level, there are local regulations on prohibiting morgue outsourcing in various cities, such as the relevant departments of Jinan City issued a document in 2008, which strictly prohibits the leasing or contracting of morgues (morgues), and those who have been leased or contracted must terminate the lease or contracting contract before the end of December 2008. If it is not terminated within the time limit, it will be investigated and dealt with with with the relevant departments.
(Source: Jinan Municipal People's Government official website)
In 2012, the relevant departments of Tianjin Municipality issued a document that the hospital morgue is strictly prohibited from leasing or contracting to other units or individuals, and those that have been leased or contracted should be terminated before August 31, 2013, and the equipment and existing remains should be properly handled. Upon termination of the contract or agreement, the hospital shall hand over the morgue to the funeral service unit designated by the civil affairs department, and the handover work shall be completed by December 31, 2013.
(Source: Chinese government website)
It is worth noting that in order to give full play to the funeral service function of the morgue of medical institutions, coordinate the solution of the relationship between morgues of medical institutions and medical order and the surrounding environment, build a harmonious environment between funeral and medical and social life, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, Beijing municipality launched the first domestic hospital morgue management specification "Technical Specifications for Morgue Construction and Funeral Services in Medical Institutions" in 2011, and solicited opinions, and issued the "Morgue Funeral Service Specifications for Medical Institutions" in 2012. It clearly stipulates that mortuary practitioners should take the initiative to introduce service items, work processes and charging standards, answer relevant business questions raised by customers, and implement a funeral service confirmation system.
(Source: Chinese government website)
Funeral services are related to the vital interests of the people, and hospital morgues are only temporary places for storing remains, and cannot be used as a cash cow for illegal profits. Foreign contracting based on economic interests itself has many hidden dangers, and if medical institutions sit idly by with "one package", it will inevitably cause doctor-patient conflicts. The occurrence of this incident is not an isolated case, and it still requires the joint efforts of relevant departments to stop the chaos in the industry from the source.
(This article is the original medical law exchange, please indicate the source when reprinting)
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