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30pct grass-roots hospitals to get medicine system by Feb

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-27 08:49

BEIJING - About 30 percent of state-owned grass-roots health institutions would set up the essential medicine system by the end of February, a health official said Friday.

Zheng Hong, director of the medicine policy and essential medicine system department under the Ministry of Health, said 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions would install the system in 30 percent of state-owned grass-roots health institutions by the end of February.

The ministry issued a list of 307 essential drugs in August last year as part of its plan to create an essential medicine program in coming 10 years to ensure people's access to essential drugs and cut their medical costs.

Essential medicines refer to those which satisfy the health care needs and are available to the public at all times in adequate amounts and in appropriate dosage forms, at a price the public can afford.

Zheng said the ministry aimed to promote the system to about 60 percent of state-owned grass-roots health institutions by 2010.

China currently designates 1,020 counties, or 35.7 percent of the total,to be covered by the system, which has a total of 18,000 state-owned grass-roots health institutions, or 38.7 percent of the country's total.

By implementing the system, ordinary people at grass-roots communities paid less for their medical bills, Zheng said.

Citing Ningxiang County of central Hunan Province as an example, Zheng said residents' spending on clinic medicine and hospitalization there decreased by 57.8 percent and 29.3 percent respectively when compared with the figure of December last year.

The Health Ministry announced last year that the essential medicine list will be adjusted every three years with respect to the changes of health demands.

In China, insufficient government funding resulted in deficits for public health institutions, thus opening doors for hospitals to generate their own revenue by raising fees and aggressively selling drugs.

By introducing the essential medicine system, the government tried to control medical spending by offering basic medicines at government fixed prices.

Building an essential drug system is part of China's three-year plan on medical reform unveiled last April, which aims to lay a solid foundation for equitable and universal access to essential health care for everyone in China by 2020.