The bracket "diving price" has been implemented for more than half a month, has the quality been discounted? Is the hospital out of stock?
Our reporter Song Rui, Lei Kun, Zhang Jianxin
In November 2020, as the first country to purchase high-value medical consumables in a centralized manner, the average price of coronary stents dropped from about 13,000 yuan to about 700 yuan, and the new price will be officially implemented on January 1 this year.
More than half a month has passed. Has the patient used the reduced price stent?
How much has the cost of surgery reduced?
Are there any reductions in hospital services?
Is there a shortage of brackets...
In this regard, Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters walked into some hospitals in Tianjin to explore whether the "stent of life" really opened up the "umbrella of life" for more patients.
"It's eighty to ninety thousand cheaper"
39-year-old Haitang was running around the hospital with a stack of bills. His expression was a little tired and his voice was still clear, "The child's grandfather is about to be discharged from the hospital, I am going to go through the discharge procedures!"
73-year-old Zhang Jiawang is Haitang’s father-in-law. On the last day of 2020, he suddenly became confused and was rushed to Tianjin First Central Hospital.
After a cardiography examination, the old man was diagnosed with diffuse calcification of the coronary arteries of the heart and multiple blockages of blood vessels. The doctor recommended surgery.
After waiting in line, Zhang Jiawang was hospitalized on January 6, and then underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and installed 5 coronary stents in the heart.
"The operation lasted for an hour and a half. The father-in-law was conscious when he was pushed out. After one day of hospitalization for observation, he was ready to be discharged the next day. Now his heart rate is stable and he is recovering well." Haitang said.
After getting the hospital's diagnosis and treatment sheet, Haitangzi carefully read it three times. “There are 4 stents worth more than 600 yuan and one worth 700 yuan. The total operation is less than 50,000 yuan!” Haitang said that the country’s good policies gave her The less affluent families saved eighty to nine million yuan.
For the Haitang family, the eighty-nine million yuan saved is like "one meter of sunlight" coming into the window from the gap of dark clouds.
In the past six months, Haitang has experienced too much, “It’s like being in a frying pan.” In August 2020, her husband had a traffic accident on the way to take out food.
Three months later, the mother-in-law who suffered from a malignant brain tumor underwent craniotomy, but she was still not rescued...
"I just hope that the family is healthy and healthy. After life is slowly on the right track, money can be earned by hard work, and tomorrow will be better!" Haitang said.
"No big numbers" on the bill
Xu Jianqiang, deputy chief physician of the Department of Cardiology, Tianjin First Central Hospital, found that the onset of myocardial infarction is getting younger and younger, and there will be young patients in their 30s and 40s every three to five.
Ms. Shao, 36, is one of Xu Jianqiang's patients.
"Without this life support, I would be gone." After a "thrilling" rescue, Ms. Shao spread a smile.
Xu Jianqiang said: "When the patient was sent to the hospital, his consciousness gradually became blurred and his body remained sitting, unable to lie down."
At that time, the situation was very dangerous. Ms. Shao's left main artery was acutely occluded, and heartbeat apnea may occur at any time.
“During the emergency, we immediately used the intra-aortic balloon pump to maintain the blood supply to the heart, and quickly opened the blood vessels within 10 minutes. When we saw a trace of blood flow on the screen, we felt hopeful. After a stent was placed in the left main artery of his heart, the heart was perfused and the patient gradually returned to normal. The entire emergency operation lasted nearly 50 minutes."
"I was sober when I launched the operating room," Ms. Shao said.
Now, she is recovering well. Common postoperative reactions such as chest tightness and dyspnea at night have not appeared.
Ms. Shao’s lover said frankly that he had heard people say that stent surgery was very expensive, so he was prepared to "save money and save people", "but I checked the hospital bill two days ago, it seems It's not a big number either."
Xu Jianqiang explained that the number of imported coronary stents used by patients has dropped to more than 600 yuan.
In fact, the prices of other related medical devices have also fallen.
"For example, the price of a balloon pump was originally about 18,000 yuan, but now it has dropped to about 12,000 yuan, which is a great benefit for patients."
Hospital services are not discounted
When the reporter met 59-year-old Wang Zheng, he chatted with his patients while dripping, his expression relaxed and his voice loud.
On January 8, Wang Zheng suffered a myocardial infarction. After a cardiac angiography, it was judged that the aorta of the heart was blocked. On the 13th, he underwent surgery.
"After the doctor put a local anesthesia on my wrist, my brain consciousness was still very clear. When the heart was implanted with a coronary stent, I immediately felt a'sigh of relief', and the tightness in my heart disappeared instantly." Wang Zheng said.
During the operation, the doctor was skilled and completed the operation in only half an hour.
An imported coronary stent was implanted in Wang Zheng's heart, costing more than 700 yuan.
“It turned out that this stent cost more than 15,000 yuan. Although the price is now cheaper, the quality of the stent and hospital services are not compromised at all. After the operation, the doctor will come to the ward every day, and the nurse will measure my blood sugar and blood pressure regularly. Great benefit!"
In Wang Zheng's view, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was a big operation in the past, but now, "this operation has also become very'people-friendly', and ordinary people in need can do it."
The uncle Wang Zheng next to the bed comes from a rural village in Wuqing District, Tianjin, and has just been discharged from the hospital.
"The old man told me that the operation was originally calculated to cost 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, but now it only costs about 20,000 yuan plus the diagnosis and treatment fees, hospitalization fees, etc., and the rural medical insurance can still be reimbursed a lot. This is unimaginable before. Yes." Wang Zheng said.
Among Wang Zheng's patients is a 75-year-old uncle who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention more than 10 years ago. At that time, he used two coronary stents and cost 100,000 yuan.
Some time ago, the uncle felt a little heart trembling, so he took advantage of the price reduction of coronary stents and came to the hospital for examination again.
No shortage of coronary stents
After the price of coronary stents are reduced, there are many patients with coronary heart disease who are undergoing elective surgery.
Lu Chengzhi, chief physician of the Department of Cardiology, Tianjin First Central Hospital, said that the cardiology department of the hospital will complete more than 1,500 percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) throughout 2020. However, after the recent new prices have landed, Corey’s daily operations The volume exceeds 20 units, an increase from last year.
According to statistics from the Joint Procurement Office of High-Value Medical Consumables ("Joint Procurement"), a national organization based in Tianjin, since January 1 this year, coronary stents that have fallen below 1,000 yuan have landed in Beijing, Tianjin, Hunan, Shanxi, and Xinjiang. (Including the Corps) and other 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
“Among the 10 products that won the bid, our hospital has 6 types, which are basically used in our hospitals, both domestically produced and imported. These centralized collection stents are products that are relatively mature in clinical use and can basically meet clinical needs. "Lu Chengzhi said that the hospital has also prepared the coronary stent reserve in advance to fully guarantee the smooth progress of the recent operation, and there is no shortage of coronary stents.
In response to the stent quality that patients are most concerned about, Zhang Tiejun, director of the Joint Procurement Office and deputy director of the Tianjin Medical Security Bureau, said that the drug supervision department will also conduct full-cycle quality supervision on the production, circulation and use of coronary stents. With identification code, the whole process can be traced and supervised from production to use.
Recently, the United Procurement Office has developed and launched coronary stent capacity and inventory reporting and updating functions to facilitate timely understanding of the inventory of selected products and predict shortages.
At the same time, relying on the national organization of the joint procurement platform for medical consumables, the joint procurement conducted the implementation readiness in batches from the three dimensions of the selected enterprises, the medical insurance bureaus of the alliance provinces and various medical institutions, and also started to conduct a use situation survey to ensure that the selected results are in the country. Smooth execution.