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.”

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 “unduly”, making patients spend their money when it was not needed, leading to the development of disease strains resistant to antibiotics.

Source: Tuoi Tre