Centre mulling law to get docs to prescribe generic medicines
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday indicated that his government may bring in a legal framework under which doctors will have to prescribe generic medicines, which are cheaper than equivalent branded drugs.
Modi said his government brought in a health policy after 15 years and capped the prices of medicines and stents, which has angered some pharmaceutical companies. The Prime Minister was speaking at the inauguration of a charitable hospital in Surat, where he exhorted wealthy people to come forward and contribute towards health care of the needy.
“This country has not been built by kings and leaders alone, but by the power of the people,” Modi said, adding, “Doctors write prescriptions in such a way that poor people do not understand the handwriting and he has to buy that medicine from private stores at high prices.”
“We will bring in a legal framework by which if a doctor writes a prescription, he has to write in it that it will be enough for patients to buy generic medicine and he need not buy any other medicine,” the PM said, adding, “In our country doctors are less, hospitals are less and medicines are expensive. If a person falls ill in a middle class family, then the financial health of the family gets wrecked. He cannot buy a house, cannot conduct the marriage of daughter.
“It is the government's responsibility that everybody should get health services at minimal price,” the PM said. “We have recently declared a health policy. The health policy has been brought in after 15 years,” Modi added.
Doctors write prescriptions in such a way that poor people do not understand the handwriting. Prime Minister Modi in Surat (pix)