The city's public health bureau would trial a new measure in selected hospitals and clinics starting May prohibiting excessive medical treatment, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily said yesterday.

The bureau will set a maximum cost for treating a particular disease in a specific hospital, taking the average treatment costs over the past few years into account. If the annual cost surpasses the ceiling amount, the doctors and hospital personnel concerned will be punished. Patients can also refer to the ceiling cost to decide if he or she has been overcharged.

The measure was stipulated in a set of new regulations released by the bureau Monday.

Hospitals and medical institutions in the city are also required to clearly display the charges for different services and drug prices on electronic screens for patients' reference, according to the regulations.

The practices were announced to correct irregularities in medical services.

The regulations target illegal kickbacks doctors receive from their prescriptions, among other kinds of misconduct. Each department of a hospital is supposed to submit a report twice a year on medical expenses incurred by the patients over the past six months to the health bureau, which will in turn publish a general report for the public.

Doctors and other medical staff who violate the regulations will have their names published on the hospital's message board. Medical workers will also be evaluated on a regular basis.

The bureau earlier announced a new rule to cut patients' expenses by setting ceilings for the per capita medical expenses incurred by both outpatients and inpatients.

Editor: Yan