Thank a doctor through a letter, commemorative banner, or satisfaction survey: Chinese rules prohibit gifts, not gratitude

A letter or satisfaction survey costs nothing and takes ten or fifteen minutes.

Item 7 of China's Nine Guidelines for Integrity in Healthcare Employment, Guoweiyifa [2021] No. 41, requires fair access and prohibits accepting benefits through allocation of appointments, beds, scarce medicines and supplies, examinations, surgery, or other medical resources. Item 8 requires professional ethics and self-discipline and prohibits soliciting or accepting patients' or relatives' gifts, money, stored-value cards, securities, equity, other financial products, or other property. It also prohibits attending meals, travel, fitness, or entertainment arranged or paid for by them. Institutions must carry out supervision and investigate violations. Satisfaction is included in tertiary public hospital performance appraisal under State Council General Office document Guobanfa [2019] No. 4. Its four domains are medical quality, operational efficiency, sustainable development, and satisfaction. Satisfaction includes both patients and medical staff, using outpatient, inpatient, and staff surveys to assess patients' experience and staff motivation. A national public hospital satisfaction system was established, with all tertiary public hospitals due to join the National Health Commission survey platform by the end of March 2019. Localities must use that platform and incorporate results into performance appraisal. The 2019 Measures for the Administration of Complaints in Healthcare Institutions also require hospitals to investigate, handle, and respond to patients' opinions, suggestions, and complaints about services, management, quality, and safety. Institutions at secondary level or above must have a patient-relations office or designated complaints department to receive complaints centrally, investigate and verify them, propose handling measures, and reply promptly. Institutions should encourage staff to actively collect patients' views and suggestions. These are Chinese national rules.

Both you and the person who treated you benefit. Wanting to express thanks after an overnight rescue is understandable; choose an appropriate form. Cash, cigarettes, and alcohol shift risk onto the recipient, whereas letters, banners, and satisfaction feedback are accepted channels. A returned gift is not evidence that it was too small or that the doctor is being aloof: professional rules require refusal. Also distinguish professional disciplinary rules around gifts to doctors from criminal bribery involving investigators or law-enforcement officials, discussed in chapter 8, entry 40; the legal analysis is different. Hospitals commonly accept letters and banners, but the claim that these enter an individual's or department's formal record is practical experience, not a rule established by the cited documents. The documented connection is between satisfaction-survey results and tertiary public hospital appraisal. If your concern is treatment itself, request evidence preservation where a dispute arises, as in entry 7, and retain records and imaging as in entry 6.

National Health Commission, National Healthcare Security Administration, and National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2021). Notice issuing the Nine Guidelines for Integrity in Healthcare Employment, Guoweiyifa [2021] No. 41, State Council Gazette. http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2022/content_5678098.htm; General Office of the State Council (2019). Opinions on strengthening performance appraisal of tertiary public hospitals, Guobanfa [2019] No. 4. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2019-01/30/content_5362266.htm; National Health Commission (2019). Measures for the Administration of Complaints in Healthcare Institutions, Order No. 3. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2019-10/08/content_5436976.htm