Government and Policy

Guide to cure over-prescription

By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-08 07:57

China's top health authority yesterday issued its first national guidebook on prescription drugs to improve their use across the country.

The pocket-sized manual will soon be distributed among doctors nationwide to guide the use of prescriptions.

"An important part of the national drug policy, the guide will help curb improper drug use, particularly over-prescription," said Wang Yu, director of the medical administration department under the Ministry of Health.

"It will also benefit the patients through effective and inexpensive drug prescription," he noted.

The guide includes key information on the composition, description, selection and methods for prescribing, dispensing and administering more than 1,100 kinds of medicine for nearly 200 common diseases.

Under current medical reforms that aim to assure every Chinese basic health care through the establishment of universal health care and an insurance system, the country is confronted with a huge challenge from widespread improper drug prescription, which without intervention could undermine the entire reform, experts said.

Improper use of drugs, especially antibiotics, is rampant in the country largely because poorly subsidized hospitals tended to prescribe unnecessary and expensive drugs for patients in order to make money, Wang said.

Worldwide, Chinese doctors use the most expensive antibiotics - a lot of them improper or unnecessary - which drives up medical costs and fuels drug resistance, he added.

"The guide, though non-binding, will help drive down constantly rising drug costs and in the long run ensure a sustainable health insurance system and people's access to quality and affordable medical care services," said Cao Ronggui, director of the Chinese Hospital Association.

Medical workers will soon receive training on proper drug use with the help of the guide, Wang noted.

Administrative measures will be issued to ensure the implementation of the guidelines at medical institutions, he said.

Critics said doctors could find excuses not to follow the guidelines.

"After all, whether the medical reform is successful or not lies in the hands of medical workers who, rather than the laymen, have command of highly professional medical knowledge," Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu said previously.