Doctors who overprescribe and over test patients are driving up healthcare costs for ordinary citizens around the country, the Health Minister said Tuesday.

“Doctors may need to earn more but they are not allowed to commercialize the healthcare sector that way.”

He was speaking during a teleconference on the use of medicine in Vietnam.

According to the Health Ministry’s Drug Administration, VND12.3 trillion (US$693 million) worth of drugs were used at hospitals nationwide last year, with Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi accounting for 18 and 11 percent of the total figure.

A pharmacist at a hospital in Hanoi who wished to remain unnamed said: “Hospitals in the city used more than VND1 trillion worth of drugs and my hospital accounted for more than half.”

“But it should be noted that many kinds of drugs prescribed last year were only supportive drugs, not real treatments. The supportive drugs cost up to VND5 billion out of VND50 billion spent on drugs at my hospital every month.”

“It is a waste of money because those drugs are not necessary,” the pharmacist said.

Deputy Health Minister Cao Minh Quang said his ministry would tighten controls over drug prescriptions at hospitals.

The ministry would announce standard regimens for different diseases and introduce new criteria for prescribing medicine to make sure doctors don’t make subjective prescriptions, Quang.

He also said medicine providers would be chosen through a bidding process and orders would be placed in large quantities to reduce packaging costs and to lower drug prices.

At the first stage, the bidding process will apply to medicines used most frequently like antibiotics, painkillers, vitamins and IV fluids, Quang said.

Reported by Nam Son