Hunan doctors suspended in prescription drugs racket

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Four doctors in a central China province have been suspended for allegedly accepting kickbacks in a scam in which private pharmacies overcharged for filling patients' prescriptions.

The prescriptions are usually filled at hospital dispensaries but the doctors in Hunan Province were reportedly sending their patients to designated private druggists on the false grounds that the hospitals had a medicine shortage.

The collusion was first reported by local news output, Hunan Economic Televison, which said the physicians were from the People’s Hospital and the TCM Hospital in Miluo City.

A doctor directing patients to the pharmacy he "cooperates" with. /Photo from Hunan Economic Television

A patient told the television station that he had paid double of the price of the medicine he needed. After he found out he had been duped, he said he reported the matter to the local discipline inspection authorities.

Pharmacy staff also confessed that they had been “cooperating” with the doctors and taken commissions from patients’ bills.

A pharmacy salesperson talks about the commission to journalists posing as medical representatives. /Photo from Hunan Economic Television

“We do not decide on how much percent the doctors took," a staff member from a pharmacy opposite the TCM Hospital admitted to Hunan Economic Televison journalists who posed as medical representatives and pretended to cooperate with the pharmacy and doctors.

"Usually, medical representatives negotiate with doctors in person. Doctors often take commissions of over 10 percent. Pharmacy staff is able to recognize the handwriting of these doctors though their names are not exposed on prescriptions sometimes.”

A journalist in the guise of a medical representative negotiates with a doctor about a commission. /Photo from Hunan Economic Television‍

The heads of the two hospitals explained that they had required all doctors to sign a letter of commitment against the improper practice but some had failed to follow the guidelines.

“We’ve talked to some doctors who made mistakes of taking commissions but they violated the regulation again,” Zhu Dejun, director of the People’s Hospital said.

He denied the claim that the hospital faced medicine shortage.

To supervise the conduct of doctors in the city, the local health authorities together with the discipline inspection department have started an overall inspection in all hospitals.

Huang Xiaoming, dead of the Discipline Inspection Team stationed in the Health and Family Planning Bureau /Photo from Hunan Economic Television

“We’re going to tighten up the management and supervision and promise not to allow this wrongdoing to be repeated,” pledged Huang Xiaoming, head of the Discipline Inspection Team stationed in the province's Health and Family Planning Bureau.