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The Seoul Administration Court on Thursday ordered the Health and Welfare Ministry to publish its list of health institutes that too often prescribe antibiotics for common cold and other minor ailments. The court agreed with a suit by the civic group People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy that the ministry must publish a list of the top and bottom 4 percent of hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other health institutions that overuse antibiotics prescriptions.
The ruling is likely to be unpopular with organizations such as the Korean Medical Association since it may prompt patients to avoid institutions that are too free or too stingy with antibiotics.
The ministry's Health Insurance Review Agency has regularly evaluated health facilities nationwide to prevent them from prescribing too many antibiotics since 2002. In March 2005, PSPD sued the ministry for disclosure of the results. It said abuse of antibiotics by health facilities is likely to increase resistance to them, and argued consumers have a right to choose the health facilities they want. But the ministry refused full disclosure, which it said ˇ°will only confuse patients and make them mistrust medical personnel."
The court disagreed. ˇ°The information requested by the plaintiff hardly violates the privacy and freedom of medical personnel as it does not include personal information such as their names, personal identification numbers, and addresses," it said in the ruling. ˇ°It is more important for medical personnel to provide consumers with sufficient information since they deal with the life and health of the public."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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