Hospitals in China resist bid to reform drug sales
Government initiative to scrap mark-up on medication prices faces backlash as chiefs of staff say it will result in crippling revenue loss
The central government's attempt to control the mainland's soaring health costs by scrapping a long-standing mark-up on medicine sales has run into stiff resistance from the chiefs at major hospitals.
The move by health minister Chen Zhu has garnered wide support from health care reform advocates, who argue that the 15 per cent add-on, which most hospitals depend on to cover their salary costs, has resulted in doctors overprescribing drugs to their patients.
But hospital executives contend that the loss of revenue would cripple them, and are calling on Beijing to increase subsidies to cover the shortfall.
Although more than 300 county-level hospitals have implemented the price reform since Chen announced it at the beginning of the year, only a dozen city-level hospitals - including two in Beijing and 10 in Shenzhen - have stopped charging the mark-ups.
The health ministry hopes to end the practice nationwide by 2015, but many more will have to sign on in the next two years if it is to meet its goal.
Several hospital chiefs aired their concerns at an annual trade conference hosted by China Hospital CEO magazine over the weekend in Xiamen .