Prescribe Generic Medicines only: UP Govt directs Doctors

Lucknow: In an attempt to encourage use of generic drugs, the Uttar Pradesh Health Department has recently directed all its doctors to prescribe only generic medicine and no branded ones for the patients. 

As per the new directions issued by the Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak on Tuesday, the doctors have now been told not to write the brand of medicine on the prescription and write down the salt or the chemical composition of the medicine instead, adds India Today.

This comes after the State Medical and Health Department took note of the complaints regarding the doctors not prescribing generic medicines at the government and government-added hospitals.

Such a direction from the State Government after recently the National Medical Commission gave similar directions to doctors in its recently released Draft RMP Regulations 2022.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) of NMC in the recently released draft Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2022, stated that the doctors should prescribe medicines with "generic"/"non-proprietary"/"pharmacological" names only.

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

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."

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."

Issuing similar directions, the UP Government has now directed the doctors to prescribe generic composition of medicines, instead of the brand name.

As per the latest media report by India Today, apart from the directions for prescribing generic drugs, all the government hospitals have been directed by Amit Mohan Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary, Medical and Health to display the available list of medicines in the hospitals. 

The Health Department has further directed the doctors not to prescribe medicines that are required to be bought from outside by the patients. Such a direction has been issued to ensure that the Jan Aushadhi Kendras are operating in a better manner.

While commenting on the Government directions, the UP Deputy CM and Health Minister, Brajesh Pathak told the daily that the reason for taking such a decision is public interest. If there is no medicine available in the hospital and the doctor prescribes medicine to the patient from outside, then he will write the name of the salt composition instead of writing the brand name of the medicine. 

He also informed that in case a doctor is caught prescribing a branded medicine, the State will take action against him.

Also Read: Prescribe generic medicines or face action: CM Chhattisgarh slams Govt doctors