Up to 20% of doctors in Vietnam prescribe medicine without any medical check-up.
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| Up to 20% of doctors in Vietnam prescribe medicine without any medical check-up. |
VietnamNet Online Newspaper cited a survey of inpatient prescriptions at Hai Duong General Hospital which reported that spending on medicine accounts for 50.7% of total patient treatment costs. Up to 88.7% of patients were prescribed antibiotics.
The survey also indicated that each inpatient was prescribed 9.7 types of medicine compared to just 3-4 suggested by the World Health Organisation.
According to Vietnam Social Insurance, many prescriptions have 2-3 kinds of antibiotics with the same effect and doctors prescribe too many nutritional supplements for patients.
Nguyen Xuan Bang, Deputy Head of the Health Insurance Policy Board under Vietnam Social Insurance, said in many hospitals, nutritional supplements make up 20% of prescriptions.
Doctors taking commissions from pharmaceutical representatives has been identified as one of the issues of concern.
