Hospitals under central government management have been wasting money on imported medicine, the Vietnam Insurance Agency said at a conference on Friday.
The agency said that foreign medicine accounted for 60-80 percent of pharmaceutical expenditure at the hospitals, while the Ministry of Health recommends a 50 percent limit.
The agency called it an “overuse of foreign medicine.â€
Spending on medicines for health insurance holders increased 43.8 percent in 2009 over the previous year, the agency said.
Reports by the Health Ministry during the conference showed that a total of VND10.8 trillion (US$585 million) was spent by the hospitals on medicines in 2009, up 35.7 percent year-on-year.
Antibiotics accounted for 32.3 percent of the expenditure.
According to the ministry, several hospitals have prescribed medicine “undulyâ€, making patients spend their money when it was not needed, leading to the development of disease strains resistant to antibiotics.
Source: Tuoi Tre