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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | NRHM paints a poor picture of health facilities by Kounteya Sinha

NRHM paints a poor picture of health facilities by Kounteya Sinha

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published Published on Jan 27, 2010   modified Modified on Jan 27, 2010

This is what a prescription confiscated recently in a Madhya Pradesh primary healthcare centre read — "Above prescribed medicines are available in the medical store situated just outside the hospital."

In a blatant example of the doctor-pharmaceutical company nexus that is not only plaguing Indian cities but also the country's most backward villages, the latest review of the National Rural Health Mission has found that the prescription pad was a sponsored gift by the private medical store. The report finalized recently pointed to how in local healthcare facilities, doctors were found "prescribing high end prescription medicines instead of basic generic preparations" leading to heavy out-of-pocket expenditure for the patients.

In several facilities, cooperative pharmacy shops were seen within the hospital premises selling drugs.

Doctors in Chhattisgarh, for example, were found indulging in excessive outside prescriptions, failing to provide drugs available in the hospital pharmacy and instead giving prescriptions for much costlier drugs outside.

The report said, "Some of it is also due to non-availability of essential drugs but most if it is driven by irrational prescription or lack of awareness of the essential drug concept."

Though almost all states reported improved availability of drugs, the review mission reported irrational use and non-availability of essential medicines.

"The full complement of essential drugs was not available at many places. For instance, in several places Magnesium Suphate injections and Nifedipine tablets were not available," the report said.

It added, "There was no supply of iron folic acid (IFA) tablets in most facilities visited during the review. Few facilities had recently received supply of IFA tablets." It added, "Obviously these practices have got legitimized in popular perception and curbing them would be quite a challenge."

A number of states are introducing or have in place commercial pharmacy shops within the public hospital.

Introduction of generic medicines in them is sometimes projected as an achievement. While no doubt generic medicines are available, this also reflects how universal is the practice of outside prescriptions in the poor performing states and how low is the availability of free drugs in the hospital, the report added.

The mandate of the review mission of NRHM is to review changes in the health system since the launch of the programme. This review was undertaken in 14 states and three Union Territories.

With such a situation prevailing in some states, the review committee recommended the creation of standard treatment guidelines in consultation with senior medical officers and adopted by the state, which have to be used as the basis for patient management by doctors at the facilities. Regular prescription audits should be institutionalized to ensure this, the committee said.

The doctor-pharma company nexus had become so common that the Medical Council of India recently came out with a fresh code of conduct for medical practitioners.


The Times of India, 28 January, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/NRHM-paints-a-poor-picture-of-health-facilities/articleshow/5503039.cms
 

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