China's top health authority issued a plan to further curb hospitals' excessive use of antibiotics on Tuesday.

The 2012 National Plan to Rectify the Clinical Application of Antibiotics is a revised version of the original plan that came into effect in 2011.

Doctors will be limited or deprived of their right to prescribe antibiotics if they are caught unjustifiably prescribing excessive amounts of antibiotics three times or more, according to the plan.