Objective   To learn the status of drug application in village health posts in thirty-eight poverty areas of western china.

  Methods   Five townships were sampled randomly from each county, three villages from each county.In each village health post a survey on sixty prescriptions was conducted.

  Results   The range category of western medicines in each province was 83-202;The proportion of medicine prescribed from the Essential Medicines List in Innore mongolia, Guangxi, Jiangxi were upper, that's 95.24%, 87.71% and 80.73%, and that in Ningxia was 34.73%, Qinghai was 53.95%;The proportion of the Essential Medicines List for traditional Chinese medicine in Sichuan and Chongqing were 41.45% and 51.77%;The application rates of anti-infection drugs was the highest of all; A verage number of medicines prescribed perpatient encounter was 2.52;The rate of three kinds of drugs using together was 25.75%;The use rate of mainline was 3.50%.

  Conclusion   In order to deal with these problems, some suggestions should be made to consolidate and perfect village health posts'function of health care.