China bans medical institutions from offering funeral services in crackdown on sector abuses

(ECNS) - China has issued new rules banning medical institutions from providing funeral services and strengthening oversight of how deceased patients are handled, more than a year after authorities launched a campaign to tackle corruption and abuses in the funeral sector.

The National Health Commission (NHC) said on Monday that it, together with five other government departments, had jointly released the new regulations, setting out clear "red lines" for hospitals and other medical institutions in the treatment of deceased patients.

Under the new rules, medical institutions are prohibited from offering funeral services, displaying or selling funeral-related products on their premises, or outsourcing morgue operations, including by introducing third parties to run hospital morgues.

Hospitals are also barred from accepting or storing bodies from outside sources, and from using ambulances or non-emergency medical vehicles to transport remains. Bodies may generally be kept at medical facilities for no longer than 24 hours.

The regulations further prohibit medical institutions from contacting funeral homes on behalf of bereaved families, as well as from recommending, inducing or forcing families to use designated funeral service providers.

Hospitals are required to strengthen the protection of patients' and families' personal information and to prevent unauthorised individuals from loitering or soliciting business inside medical facilities.

For deaths with a clear cause and confirmed as natural, medical institutions must issue a death certificate within one day of the death or of notification by family members. The rules also call for strict prevention and punishment of illegal issuance or resale of death certificates and encourage the introduction of electronic management of such documents.

In a policy explanation published on its website, the NHC said the new regulation follow a nationwide campaign launched in October 2024 to address corruption in the funeral sector.

Public attention on the sector intensified in August 2024, after media reports revealed a large-scale corpse trafficking case in which more than 4,000 bodies were involved.

China then launched its targeted campaign against corruption two months after the case came to light.

(By Zhang Jiahao)