Health authorities also disqualified 25 blood collection personnel and closed two blood plasma collection stations last year, said Vice Health Minister Ma Xiaowei during a meeting on health supervision.

"The supervision of blood collection has improved thanks to a nationwide campaign specifically against illegal blood deals," he said.

"Medical services have obviously improved, while illegal medical advertisements and unqualified medical staff have declined," Ma said.

"We also established a health supervision mechanism," Ma said, noting that 98 percent of cities and 94 percent of counties had set up health regulators by the end of 2007, with almost 100,000 staff.

However, Ma said, nine cities and 411 counties still had no medical services watchdogs, and lack of supervision was still a major problem rural areas.