Research On Complaints Of Health Supervision In Shanghai: Status And Regulatory Strategies

The options of dealing with public reports and complaints of illegal activities is one of the most important duties to the health supervision agencies. In this study, complaints of health supervision refer to:the citizens, legal persons or other organizations report and complaint health illegal activities to health supervision agencies via letters, phone calls or visiting etc.First of all, differences between complaints of health supervision and letters to health bureau, health administrative punishment are discussed, and then is the scope and roles. In addition, the author analyses the general rules, such as sources, motivations, the influence factors, reasons of increased number and anonymous reporting, seasonal distribution, characteristics and treatments based on the literature review and expert consultation. The summarized main regulatory measures are as following:(1) Accelerating the pace of health supervision system; (2) Strengthening the abilities of investigate team; (3) Encouraging the joint supervision of the whole society; (4) Improving the quality and efficiency of illegal activities investigation and treatment; (5) Strengthening information analysis and use.In the second section of the study, the author collects the archives of health supervision in Shanghai over the years, using general statistical methods and expert advice, and also discusses the discipline of time, expertise and regional distribution.For example, in the year of 2010,2833 cases were received. Among them,68.9% complaints are about medical practice, the top three issues are medical practicing without a license, the use of non-medical personnel, illegal medical advertisements published. The rest of the complaints are related to public health, such as public places without licenses, water quality of swimming pools, tobacco control, occupational health check, and drinkable-water selling machine.Since food and cosmetics regulatory functions have been translated, complaints which health supervision agencies in Shanghai have received, indicates a decreasing trend during recent years. Among the complaints, the percentage of medical practice and public health are about 70% and 30% respectively. Phone calls are the first choice for the public to make complaints. In addition to the 2010 World Expo, due to certain measures implemented by health supervision agencies, the number of cases in the third quarter was less than the second quarter of 2010. The remaining quarters of the years showed the same distribution. Summer was the peak time of public health complaints. During the spring festival, the number of complaints was low. Comparing 2007 to 2010, Specifying to the subjects, the author addresses the following characteristics:(1) Offering medical services without a license as one of the most important issues has been reduced, however it is still the most popular cause of complaints and the biggest problem in health supervision; (2) In all of the complaints about medical organizations, complains about medical advertisements have been significantly increased, mostly are internet advertisements and illegal publications. Scams such as fake patients are in a wave crest order, during the spring festival there was a peak, with the effective control afterwards, and the rest of the year would be a stable year. (3) On complaints about public places, the numbers of organizations without legal licenses, such as beauty and hair salons, are significantly reduced. Water quality of swimming pools has been popular in the complaints which need to be concerned. Local tobacco control has attracted social concerns since local regulations have been published. (4) About occupational health issues, complaints which are related to health screening are increased, therefore the supervision on occupational health issues are going to focus on; (5) About drinking water, the number of complains about Instant Drinking Waters are more than the "2nd water supply" in 2010, which suggesting the need for adjustment of regulatory focus.In response to these characteristics, the following suggestions have been listed in the article:(1) providing more professional response to civil citizens when receiving complaints, and continuously expanding sources of public tip-offs; (2) Conducting preventive supervisions in advance especially for the cases with specific seasonal characteristics; (3) Making adjustments to the supervisions when there are condition change on some cases, in order to make rational use of the resources of supervision; (4) Increasing the depth of foundation researches, especially on information analysis; (5) Exceeding the bottlenecks in supervision and management functions, and improving the quality of disposal of complaints reported.In the third section of this study, the definition of major health complaints has been defined. By using research methods such as case analysis, insider interviews, expert advice to study those cases which have been frequently mentioned in complaints,18 fatal cases of providing medical services without a license, the "source of media monitoring" case in 2010, the author has proposed a few count measures for the said cases.