GMCH Patiala doctors warned of stringent action for prescribing outside medicines

Patiala: The doctors at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Patiala have been warned of suspension by the authorities if they are found prescribing outside medicines or recommending tests to patients from outside.

The directive was issued in a meeting held on Monday with the doctors of various departments where a discussion regarding the unavailability of medicines and other medical supplies took place. 

During the meeting, the authorities warned the medicos against prescribing medicines that aren't available in the in-house pharmacy and said that disciplinary action would be taken against those found indulging in the practice. 

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Following the warning, the doctors were infuriated by the fact that the hospital pharmacy lacked a variety of crucial medications, masks, syringes, and gloves. Additionally, they asserted that there was a shortage of emergency kits for patients.

Apart from raising the issue of the unavailability of drugs and tests in the hospital, the doctors including senior and junior residents have also demanded the availability of medicine, gloves, masks and other emergency medical items in stock.

A doctor on condition of anonymity informed TOI, “A number of essential drugs are unavailable for the patients. The oxygen is available but there are no oxygen masks. How can oxygen be supplied to a patient without an oxygen mask? There are no medicines for seizures, no syringes, no syrups... Also, nebulisation masks that cost around Rs 600 from outside are unavailable at Rajindra hospital,” a doctor said on condition of anonymity.

“The tests for Vitamin D and thyroid are conducted twice a week, whereas there is no facility to conduct several other tests, including TTG, hemolysis and wheat allergy. The kits are not available for growth hormone tests, which cost around Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per test outside,” said the doctor.

“Despite all this, in the meeting, doctors were warned of suspension if they recommended tests to patients from outside or prescribed outside medicines. This clearly shows authoritarian behaviour,” the doctor added.

This is not the first time that this matter has been raised by the authorities of GMCH. Earlier, a written directive was issued to all heads of departments, resident doctors as well as other health staffers asking them to abstain from prescribing medicines from outside the hospital.

Addressing the shortage of medicines, the authorities have formed committees for each department to work out the list of medicines under the essential and non-essential drug categories.

Talking about this, Dr H S Rekhi, medical superintendent of Rajindra Hospital, said, “There are 18 different departments at the GMCH Patiala and we have formed a committee for each department to work out on the shortage of medicines and provide a list of essential and non-essential drugs that are unavailable in the hospital so that we can purchase and provide the same for the patients. A meeting for more than two hours was held in this regard with the doctors.”

Also read- No Shortage Of Medicines In Govt Hospitals: Health Minister Veena George