Charge for specialist drugs to be reviewed

The Hospital Authority has promised to review a four-year-old scheme governing the use of expensive drugs in public hospitals after it asked the family of a road accident victim to pay HK$21,000 for - possibly lifesaving - specialist medicine.

The authority's chief executive Shane Solomon yesterday admitted the incident revealed 'a grey area' in the policy and vowed to come up quickly with guidelines ensuring that 'beneficial drugs are made available in life-threatening emergency situations without cost to the patient'.

The matter erupted after a 26-year-old woman, Wong Pui, was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital after being seriously injured by a minibus on Friday night.

The victim was suffering from serious internal bleeding and doctors proposed the use of NovoSeven, which is mainly used to control bleeding in haemophiliacs.

The family had to pay HK$21,000 first for four doses before the drug - a dose of which costs up to HK$9,000 in some private hospitals - could be used because, under the 2005 scheme, such an expensive drug would not be given free in case of 'off-label' use.

Ms Wong's father paid but said the policy was preventing doctors from doing their best to save patients.

'It will prevent doctors from concentrating on saving lives. With the policy in place, a doctor could be hesitant about using some drugs, or may procrastinate because he is unsure if the family would be willing to pay. This will result in delay in treatment,' Mr Wong told Now TV.