Status quo of National Essential Medicine System in village clinics of a province in western Chi-na / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the status quo of National Essential Medicine System ( NEMS) in village clinics of a province in western China. Methods:Individual in-depth interview was carried out with village doctors and their managers of a province in western China, to understand the subsidies of zero-markup rate, compensations for general medical fees, and status quo of NEMS assessment mechanism and its impacts on prescribing behavior of village doc-tors. Results:In the surveyed area, the intervention of NEMS has not achieved the desired objectives: the prescri-bing behavior of village doctors has not changed significantly;general medical fee system has failed to achieve reason-able compensations;and the assessment mechanism done by village doctor managers has been a mere formality. Con-clusions and SuggestionsTo ensure the feasibility, effectiveness and sustainability of the intervention, the area poli-cymakers should take into full consideration the special nature of village doctors.