A pharmacy [File photo: Chinanews.com]

Beijing is to officially launch medical reforms on Saturday, separating hospital services from drug sales.

The overall price of drugs is expected to fall as the reform requires all public medical institutions in Beijing to do away with the 15 percent markup on drug prices.

All the cost of 435 medical services can be reimbursed from the medical insurance, except those otherwise provided by the state.

The reform also requires hospitals to bring in medical affairs fees to replace registration, diagnosis and treatment fees.

The director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, Fang Laiying, outlined the new mechanism.

“The medical affairs fee is a kind of compensation for the cost of medical activities at a hospital. The medical affairs service fees vary. For example, the starting fee is 20 yuan for a community hospital, with a patient paying 1 yuan and medical insurance paying the rest. For Class III hospitals, the starting fee is 50 yuan, with a patient to pay 10 yuan and their medical insurance to pay the rest,” said Fang.

Fang added that the move aims to give Class III hospitals more strength to treat difficult and complicated cases.

The reforms will be implemented among more than 3,600 hospitals.

It is part of the country’s efforts to end the practice of hospitals supplementing their income through drug sales, while guaranteeing that medical personnel get recognition for the value of their skills and services.

A human infection of H7N9 bird flu has been reported in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, the local health authority said Saturday.

The patient, a 41-year-old migrant worker from neighboring Sichuan Province, was diagnosed on April 3 and is in quarantine at Tibet’s Third People’s Hospital in Lhasa, the regional health and family planning commission said on its website.

The man had been involved in the trade of live poultry since arriving in Lhasa in February.

His symptoms were reported to the regional disease prevention and control center on April 2, and his condition was confirmed on April 3. He is the first human infection of H7N9 bird flu in Tibet.

Following the diagnosis, live poultry trading has been suspended across the region. All those who had been in close contact with the patient are under medical observation.

H7N9 is a bird flu strain first reported to have infected humans in China in March 2013. Infections are most likely to strike in winter and spring.

Police in southwest China’s Yunnan Province have arrested five suspects and seized 41 kg of heroin in the latest crackdown on drug trafficking.

The men and drug were seized in Ruili City in Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Dehong on March 31, the public security bureau of Longling County said in a statement Saturday.

The bureau received reports in February that an overseas drug trafficking ring were planning to ship narcotics to China.

Police detected the two suspects from Myanmar as soon as they crossed the border into China at 4 p.m. on March 31. They then followed them to a hotel in Ruili City, where the suspects met their three Chinese collaborators. All five were arrested.

From the trunk of their SUV, police found 120 blocks of heroin, which weighed 41.785 kg.

The two suspects from Myanmar said they had been promised 5,000 yuan (725 U.S. dollars).

The investigation continues.

Dehong prefecture is close to the opium-growing Golden Triangle. Last year, border police in Dehong seized 1.6 tonnes of narcotics, completed investigations into 668 drug-related crimes and arrested 662 suspects.