HOSPITALS are no longer profiting from selling drugs.

Making the announcement yesterday, local health officials also said the government had increased prices of certain medical services, like nursing, injection, surgery and rehabilitation, to better reflect medical staffs’ skill and labor.

Previously, hospitals had been allowed to add up to 15 percent to the cost of buying a drug, resulting in many complaints of doctors prescribing expensive and unnecessary medicines for profit.

“Cutting the markup is to push public hospitals to control medical costs better, to reduce patients’ medical burden and to boost our health reform,” said Wu Jinglei, director of Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission.

The city will also introduce a new medical charging system, based on the disease itself rather than the services supplied.

The authority will fix a price for the treatment of a disease to regulate hospitals’ performances and to control patients’ medical bills.

“We are working on the issue and the prices will be announced later, as the national government has ordered each province and municipality to announce the price for at least 100 diseases within this year,” Wu said.

The authority is also developing an online system with information of all registered health facilities covering their licenses, expertise, and website links to prevent patients being cheated by unofficial information or unauthorized listings online, officials said.