Breaking Pharma Doctor Nexus: Union Health Minister suspends 2 CGHS doctors for favouring one pharma company drugs

New Delhi:  Announcing crackdown on the doctor-pharma nexus, the Union Health Ministry has recently suspended two central government health scheme (CGHS) doctors for allegedly prescribing certain medicines in favour of a particular pharmaceutical company.

While one of the two CGHS doctors works at a CGHS dispensary in Shahdara, the other one is employed at Dwarka Sector 9, reports PTI.

The Health Ministry took action against them after conducting a probe that revealed that these doctors had been prescribing the drugs even though the same medicines were available at the CGHS central warehouse at affordable rates.

Interestingly, the suspension order came after the National Medical Commission directed doctors to prescribe generic medicine in its recently released Draft RMP Regulations 2022.

The prescription guidelines that form an integral part of the Draft mentioned, "Prescribe only those generic medicines that are available in the market and accessible to the patient."

Also Read: Doctors Should write generic, non-proprietary, pharmacological names only: NMC Prescription Guidelines

Besides noting that "generic"/"non-proprietary"/"pharmacological" names have to be prescribed, the guidelines reiterated the point by again stating that physicians should "Avoid prescribing "branded" generic drugs". The guidelines however lay down that In the case of drugs with a narrow therapeutic index, biosimilars, and similar other exceptional cases, this practice can be relaxed.

In fact, taking a step further, the Guidelines added that the doctors should "Encourage patients to purchase drugs from Jan Aushadhi kendras and other generic pharmacy outlets" and should "Advocate for hospitals and local pharmacies to stock generic drugs."

While the Central Government has been encouraging the doctors for prescribing generic medicine, the Union Health Ministry received complaint against two CGHS doctors a couple of months ago.

Following this, the ministry had ordered an enquiry and the preliminary probe revealed severe violations in prescribing medicines and that a group of doctors were favouring a particular pharmaceutical company, an official source informed PTI on Sunday.

An action like this can be faced by other doctors also in the coming days, sources informed ANI.

Mandaviya had also taken action against such violations and kept stressing on the policy of zero tolerance against corruption in the health sector.

Also Read: UP Govt directs doctors to prescribe generic drugs only