Beijing saves $81.5m on antibiotics

Hospitals in Beijing saved 500 million yuan ($81.5 million) on purchasing antibiotics in 2013 compared with what was spent in 2011, the city's health and family planning commission said on Wednesday.

The proportion antibiotics take up of all the modern medicines purchased by hospitals dropped from more than 15.5 percent in 2011 to about 13.3 percent in 2013, the commission said in an announcement on its website.

Also, in the city's top-level hospitals, the proportion of inpatients using antibiotics dropped from 61.4 percent in 2011 to 43.8 percent. The rate of outpatient prescriptions containing antibiotics dropped from 15 percent to 9.3 percent.

The city started a campaign to rectify inappropriate use of antibiotics by hospitals in April 2011, as part of a nationwide overhaul led by the former Ministry of Health.

Ma Yanming, an information officer of the commission, said the campaign has been focusing on top-level hospitals in the city.

The commission said it will continue to expand the campaign into grassroots hospitals and community health service centers.

"We hope that patients, doctors, pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies will act together and shoulder the responsibility to ensure medical safety and fight resistance against antibiotics," it said in the announcement.