The Ministry of Health (MOH) is currently revising the 1994 edition of the Basic Standards for Outpatient Departments and Clinics, and is seeking feedbacks from provincial level health departments.

Under the proposed revision, outpatient departments are banned from performing high-risk, complicated surgeries and surgeries requiring general anesthesia. Outpatient departments are not authorized to be equipped with overnight hospital beds and must have fewer than 10 examination tables. Clinics should provide medical services for common diseases and conduct surgeries requiring local anesthesia only. Clinics are not allowed to be equipped with hospital beds for patients.

The revision also raises the qualification criteria for outpatient departments and clinics including provisions that require outpatient departments to have at least seven physicians. However, unlike the 1994 edition, the revised rule does not cover plastic surgery departments.

Separately, the MOH is reportedly boosting its hospital inspection capabilities by assembling inspection teams across the country.