Hospitals made about 60,000 illegal prescriptions for medical narcotics and other restricted drugs in the wake of the telemedicine, temporarily allowed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a lawmaker said.

Rep. In Jae-geun of the Democratic Party of Korea released the report on Friday based on his analysis of data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Since the ministry allowed telehealth since Feb. 24, 2020, to respond to Covid-19, there have been some irregular prescriptions and advertisements exploiting the loosened supervision, the report said. It cited such examples as advertisements for easy prescription of sexual enhancers and diet pills, forcing the government to limit the prescription of restricted drugs on Nov. 2, 2021.

However, 46,650 patients have been prescribed restricted prescription drugs with reimbursement from Nov. 2, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2022. The number of such unlawful prescriptions totaled 58,495, with 2,993, or about 5 percent, prescribed to patients under 19.

Psychotropic drug diazepam accounted for the largest share of such non-face-to-face prescriptions, with 28.0 percent, followed by another psychotropic drug, alprazolam (16.8 percent), and hypnotic drug zolpidem tartrate (12.6 percent).

However, the ministry uncovered and imposed a fine in only one case in March 2023, Rep. In said in his report.

"Drugs that can cause serious side effects are too easily prescribed," he said. “Moreover, the cases identified through the ministry's data are limited to prescription-restricted drugs covered by health insurance. We cannot even confirm the prescription of non-reimbursed narcotics and drugs subject to abuse."

All this reveals that the ministry has been lax in managing and supervising non-face-to-face prescriptions, the opposition lawmaker pointed out.

“The Health and Welfare Ministry should thoroughly analyze the causes and background of the problems in non-face-to-face prescriptions, reflect them in the system's design, and seek ways to strengthen management and supervision to prevent the same cases from being repeated," Rep. In said.