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The government has published statistics about the use of antibiotics in some 12,000 health institutes nationwide, complying with a court order to reveal results of its inquiry into hospitals and clinics that over-prescribe antibiotics for minor ailments. Consumer groups have welcomed the move, but the Korean Medical Association is miffed, saying it is ¡°unfair¡± to evaluate health institutes based on the use of antibiotics only.
The Health and Welfare Ministry on Thursday disclosed prescription rates of antibiotics for common cold, sore throats and other minor ailments between July and September 2005, as well as a list of institutes that prescribed the most antibiotics between 2002 and 2004.
Those with the highest antibiotics prescription rate prescribed antibiotics to a whopping 98-99 out of 100 patients with a cold. The figures show that the smaller an institute was, the more likely it was to overdo the antibiotics, with a prescription rate of 45 percent at university hospitals, 48 percent in general hospitals, 52 percent in smaller hospitals and 61 percent in private clinics.
The Korean Association of Medical Practitioners in Private Clinic complained the disclosure was liable to generate a system where doctors apply the same treatment to patients without considering individual conditions, but the ministry said that it disclosed the list to warn the medical profession against overuse of antibiotics. It said there had hardly been any improvement while it kept the figures confidential. The ministry promised to expand disclosure for the sake of the public¡¯s right to know, which suggests it could also publish figures on other quick fixes such as excessive injections and Caesarian operations.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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