Ministry of Health: Average drug prices drop by about a quarter

Zheng Hong, director of the Department of Drug Policy and Essential Drugs of the Ministry of Health, said on the 12th that since the implementation of the essential medicine system in August 2009, the burden on the masses has been reduced. The sales price of essential drugs at the grass-roots level fell by an average of 25% before the implementation of the system.

On the regular press conference held by the Ministry of Health on the 12th, Zheng Hong summarized the benefits that the masses of people had received after the implementation of the basic drug system at the grassroots level as “a drop of one liter”. “One drop” mainly means that the sales price of essential drugs at the grassroots level has dropped significantly; “one litre” mainly means that the proportion of Medicare reimbursement has risen significantly.

At present, all provinces in the country and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have implemented the use of essential drugs in all government-run grassroots medical and health institutions and implemented zero-salt sales. The national basic drug system has been initially established. According to Zheng Hong, 31 provinces have established a government-led provincial-level non-profit drug bidding platform. As of the end of September, a total of 29 provinces had issued new basic drug procurement mechanism documents, and 26 provinces initiated a new round of procurement. The compensation mechanism for grassroots medical and health institutions was gradually improved. Twenty-five provinces issued comprehensive implementation measures for grass-roots-level comprehensive or multi-channel compensation, and 24 provinces adjusted the charging standards for primary-level medical and health institutions. The existing registration fees, diagnosis fees, and injection fees for grass-roots units were The cost of pharmacy services is combined into general medical treatment fees. The basic medical and health care institutions in most provinces charge a fee of 8 to 10 yuan per person for general medical treatment, and individuals have to pay a fee of 1 to 2.5 yuan per person. The personnel and distribution system reforms at the primary health care institutions have also achieved results.

Zheng Hong said that various localities have used different methods to provide special subsidies to rural doctors; the provinces have positively assessed the allocation ratio of basic public health service funds in township health centers and village clinics, and generally allocated 30% to 40% of the funds for public health services to villages. In the health clinics, all localities actively solved the problem of rural doctors' pensions, 30 provinces created conditions for rural doctors to solve new rural insurance, and Jiangsu Province and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps incorporated rural doctors into urban workers' pension insurance. With the support of the Central Government, the Ministry of Health carried out training of pharmaceutical personnel in 22 provinces in the central and western regions and 30,500 township hospitals in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Food and drug regulatory authorities at all levels effectively do a good job of monitoring the quality of essential drugs. The monitoring and evaluation of the essential medicine system has also been fully carried out.

According to Zheng Hong, as of the end of September, the basic drug system was fully covered in six provinces in Shanghai and all the village clinics of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and was implemented in more than 60% of village clinics in seven provinces such as Beijing. In the next step, the Ministry of Health will focus on implementing the central government's subsidy policy for the implementation of the basic medicine system in the village clinics, and adopt various forms to stabilize the team of rural doctors to ensure that the village clinics will achieve full coverage of the basic drug system by the end of this year; Comprehensive reforms, improvement of institutional and institutional mechanisms, adjustment of the basic medicines list by 2012, completion of adjustments to the “National Essential Drugs List” within the prescribed time limit, and greater investment in the training of medical personnel, especially the strengthening of general practitioners The training of pharmacy personnel promotes scientific and rational use of essential drugs.