Thiruvananthapuram – The government is getting hold of the prescriptions of doctors in all government hospitals, including the medical college. This is due to the complaint that the hospitals are not prescribing the medicines in stock and only the medicines of certain companies are being written in the prescription and the patients have to buy these from outside. An expert team led by the Director of Health Department and Director of Medical Education will conduct the ‘Prescription Audit’. In each hospital, the doctor’s prescription will be verified within a specified time frame. For this purpose lightning inspection will be conducted in hospitals.
Doctors’ organizations have often pointed out that some doctors are prescribing medicines of other companies without prescribing medicines to be given free of cost even for super specialty treatments in medical colleges and that there should be a provision in this regard. Last year, the government spent Rs 660 crore to buy medicines for government hospitals.
Only the medicine of the company that qualifies under the contract of the Medical Service Corporation will reach the hospital stores. Under the influence of big drug companies, the drugs prescribed by doctors are not found in the store. A high-level meeting chaired by Minister Veena George has assessed that through prescription audit, it will be possible to find medicines that are regularly prescribed by more doctors and make these medicines available at free cost in the hospital store. It was earlier directed that doctors should write down the generic name of the drugs to prevent excessive influence of the companies.
Fraud in government scheme too
Patients with cards of various free schemes of central and state governments like ‘Arogya Kiran’ can be referred to outside labs for testing in emergency. This is for tests that are not available in government hospitals. The government will transfer this money to the labs. But some doctors have also been found misusing this facility by referring unnecessary tests to private labs. This will also be checked during the prescription audit.
English Summary: Government to audit doctor’s prescription