Forensic Psychiatrists Taking Bribes from Patients and Big Pharma

Original Chinese: 包头7名医生因精神病司法鉴定受贿和收取高额医药回扣被公诉

[Editor’s note: In China the question of whether a person is excused from criminal punishment by reason of mental incapacity is determined by an expert forensic evaluator who is a trained psychiatrist. There are about 2000 forensic psychiatric evaluators for all of China. The defense has no right to request an evaluation or hire his own experts, but may informally as that police, prosecutors or the courts do so. Their evaluation is rarely challenged, and many persons found ‘criminally insane’ will simply be released to their families.

China has recently begun a campaign cracking down on pharmaceutical company kickbacks.]

Xinhua, HohhotJuly 31 (Reporters Ice and GAO Shunhua)In the course of performing forensic psychiatric evaluations, seven doctors from the Baotou #6 Municipal Hospital in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have accepted money from the families of the person being evaluated for the benefit of that person; and also accepted large kickbacks totaling over 2,000,000 from pharmaceutical representatives over the course of diagnoses and treatment. The seven doctors have now been indicted by the Baotao procuratorate on charges of accepting bribes.

The Baotao #6 Municipal Hospital (Baotao Municipal Psychiatric Center) is one of the larger municipal-level specialized psychiatric hospitals in Inner Mongolia. In 2005, upon the approval of the Jusitce Department for the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Baotou #6 Municipal Hospital officially established its forensic evaluation institute and forensic evaluators are comprised of experts from the hospitals psychiatry department. It is the only professional evaluation organization in Baotou to have doctors qualified to perform forensic mental health evaluations.

Prosecutors allege that in winter of 2011, the Intermediate People's Court in Erdos retained the Baotou #6 Municipal Hospital Forensic Evaluation Institute to perform a forensic mental health appraisal of Wang Shouda to determine if he had capacity for criminal responsibility. Wang Shouda's relatives sought out the Baotou #6 Hospital's Director of the clinical progams, Dang Ren and other evaluators, requesting that they look after Wang Shouda. Thus, the #6 Hospital of Baotou City issued a forensic appraisal conclusion saying that Wang Shouda possessed limited capacity for criminal responsibility. The Erdos Intermediate People's Court, on the basis of this appraisal opinion, gave Wang Shouda, a lenient punishment. Later, each evaluator from the forensic evaluation institute, Dang Ren, Zhang Zhen, Song Peiyi, Chen Furen, Li Liqin,and others, received ￥5000 RMB [$815 USD] as an expression of thanks from the evaluatees family.

In July of 2012, the Baotou , Donghe district police department retained the #6 hospital's forensic evaluation institute to perform a forensic psychiatric appraisal of whether the suspect Liu Zhiya had the capacity for criminal responsibility. After two evaluators from the Institute, Li Liqin and Dang Ren, accepted 13,000 from the evaluatee's family, Liu Zhiya was appraised as lacking the capacity for criminal responsibility; and based on this appraisal opinion, the Donghe police department withdrew its case against Liu Zhiya who it suspected of arson.

In total, prosecutors have investigated five cases like those described above. For the evaluators in this forensic appraisal unit, accepting commissions from the families of persons being evaluated to help that person avoid criminal punishment or be treated leniently, has become a "stable source of income" for Dang Ren and the other five doctors.

The prosecutors further allege that Dang Ren, Wang Jin, Li Liqing, Chen Furen, Zhang Linge and Song Peiyi of the Baotou #6 Hospital, also used their right to issue to write prescriptions during treatment to receive kickbacks from several pharmaceutical representatives for a total of more than ￥2,000,000 RMB ($326,760 USD), with Dang Ren receiving ￥710,000RMB （$116,000 USD) , and the above six doctors will be held criminally accountable for accepting bribes.

At the same time, since 2008, the Jiangsu Province Enhua Pharmaceutical LLC's Baotou regional sales representative, Wang Yong, has been giving the doctors at the Baotou #6 Hospital kickbacks in proportion to the amount of medicine they prescribe as part of his pharmaceutical sales, giving the doctors a total of over ￥240,000 （$39,190). Wang Yong is being prosecuted on charges of bribery.