By Kim Cheong-won
Staff Reporter


A court Thursday ordered the Ministry of Health and Welfare to make public the hospitals that overuse antibiotics to provide medical information to patients and prevent medicine from being over-prescribed.

The ruling, however, is expected to touch off strong opposition from medical associations because if a list is made public, patients might unreasonably avoid certain medical institutions simply on the basis of their antibiotics usage.

Experts said, however, that taking antibiotics for colds and other viral illnesses is not only ineffective treatment, but it also has serious side effects.

Abusing antibiotics helps create bacteria that are harder to kill. Frequent and inappropriate use of antibiotics allows strains of bacteria to develop that can resist future treatment.

The Seoul Administrative Court said in a statement that the ministry should discover its ranking of hospitals across the nation in terms of the overuse of antibiotics for patients with colds.

``There is no concern the information would infringe on doctors’ privacy and it doesn’t expose the institutions’ business know-how,’’ the court said.

``In order to guarantee that patients are able to make an informed decision about which medical institution to choose, it is important to provide then with sufficient medical information, as this concerns their health and lives,’’ the court added.

It also said revealing the information would improve people’s understanding and trust in the medical system.

A civic group, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, demanded the ministry make public its inspection results on how hospitals use and prescribe antibiotics last April.

The evaluation has been made regularly from 2001 to 2004 by the state-run Health Insurance Review Agency to prevent hospitals from using medicine unnecessarily.

The ministry, however, turned down the request at that time, saying the disclosure of lists could trigger unwarranted public mistrust or overconfidence in hospitals.

When it comes to the court decision, the ministry said that it would decide whether to appeal after carefully examining the court decision.

``The ministry agrees with the court decision in principle, but it is better to reveal the list gradually, taking the circumstances of the medical institutions into consideration,’’ said a ministry official.

``We will decide what to do at the end of this month by making a thorough examination of the issue,’’ he added.

kcw@koreatimes.co.kr