China issues standard for community hospital

BEIJING — The National Health Commission (NHC) issued a basic standard for community hospitals, requiring at least 30 beds to be open for patients in each hospital, and the utilization rate for sickbeds should above 75 percent.

The community hospital should offer, at least, general medical service, rehabilitation treatment and traditional Chinese medical services to patients, according to the standard.

The NHC also requires that at least one attending physician or a practitioner with a higher post for each clinical department and at least three general medical practitioners in each community hospital.

Non-medical service personnel should be less than 15 percent of all employees in community hospitals, noted the standard, adding that each sickbed should have at least 0.7 medical service personnel to cover it.