China to encourage hospitals to use medicine from centralized procurement

BEIJING — The National Healthcare Security Administration has asked public hospitals and medical staff across the country to use more medicine from centralized procurement while guaranteeing both quality and quantity.

According to the circular released by the administration on Dec 19, the move will benefit more people with the achievements made in the country's medical reform.

In October, the trial area for centralized medicine procurement and usage was expanded from 11 cities to the whole country, significantly lowering medicine prices in areas new to the system.

The circular calls on provincial-level medical care administrations to timely supervise and guide local medical institutions' usage of drugs covered by the system.

It stresses the establishment and improvement of stimulation and assessment mechanisms for the usage of such medicine.

The circular also asks medical institutions to be alert of potential shortage or quality issues of the medicine, and inform local medical care administrations if there are any.

In 2018, the centralized medicine procurement system was put on a trial run in 11 cities across China including Beijing and Shanghai, as a result of which the prices of 25 drugs covered by the system dropped by an average of 52 percent.