Direct medical practitioners for writing generic names of drugs in legible handwriting using capital letters: TNCDA urges state

Chennai: Taking note of the difficulties faced by the retailers in reading and comprehending the prescriptions written by the doctors, the Tamil Nadu Chemist and Druggist Association (TNCDA) has urged the State Government to issue an urgent order and direct the medical practitioners in the State for writing all the prescriptions in generic names and in legible handwriting using capital letters.

This is one of the seven resolutions passed by the association during its meeting on November 8. More than 160 members, including the past office-bearers of the association, assembled at Trichy and discussed several core issues faced by the pharmaceutical trade sector in the country.

Led by Mannargudi Ramachandran, the meeting was attended by former office-bearers of the TNCDA- including B Arulkumar, G Natarajan, P Sakthivelan, R Mohan Kumar, C Mahendran and G Subrahmanian. 

Kovai Kasiram, the chairman of the Retain wing Training Academy had also agreed for attending the meeting. However, he did not turn up at the last moment.

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

As per the latest media report by Pharmabiz, during the meeting, the association took note of the fact that many of its retailers faced problems in reading the prescriptions and comprehending the doses of drugs written by the medical practitioners. It was further observed by the association that most of the illegible writing is by Tamil Nadu doctors when compared with the doctors belonging to other states. 

It was alleged by the traders at the meeting that even though several physicians have already made alterations in their earlier style of prescription writing, the Tamil Nadu medical practitioners were unwilling to change their attitude. 

Therefore, the traders unanimously wanted the State for issuing an urgent order to the doctors' community for writing generic names of medicines in capital letters in all the prescriptions while using legible handwriting. 

While commenting on this, Mannargudi Ramachandran informed the daily that several dispensing errors were happening in the retail pharmacies because of the illegible handwriting of the doctors. The dispensers often face problems while trying to understand the brand names and the strength of the dosage suggested by the doctors.

He also pointed out that even though there are court orders and directions of the medical council for ensuring legible handwriting by the doctors in the prescriptions, that too in capital letters, the rules lack proper implementation in the State.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that recently the National Medical Commission (NMC) issued the Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2022, and clarified that doctors should prescribe medicines with "generic"/"non-proprietary"/"pharmacological" names only.

Another resolution taken by the association is regarding the reduction in the prices of all branded drugs. The members of the association demanded that the prices of the branded medicines should be brought down to the level of the generic drugs.

It was opined by the experienced traders who attended the meeting that if the prices of all drugs are streamlined with reduced MRPs, it would help stop the growth of online pharmacies and emerging discount pharmacies. They observed that prices of all the brands can be reduced if the manufacturers put a stop to the freebies offered to the doctors and the advertisements on their products.

Apart from this, another resolution of the association included their aim for prohibiting internet pharmacies (online trade) which has now become popular in the State. In this regard, the resolution states that the government should be strict and prohibit all advertisements on online pharmacies which are creating problems for the market.

The majority of the retailers also expressed concern about the mushrooming of retail pharmacies all over the state. In order to address this problem, another resolution was passed at the meeting that asked the State and the directorate of drugs control for considering one state license for a minimum number of 500 families. 

Besides, another resolution was passed to urge the government for restricting the punishment for minor offenses by traders with departmental actions rather than approaching the court.

Further, TNCDA also discussed the high rates of GST being paid by the traders at present. For this, the meeting passed a resolution for asking the central government to reduce the rate of Goods and Services Tax to the level of 5 percent. At present, the traders are paying 12% GST.

Also Read: War against branded medicines: After UP, Now Punjab warns its doctors, directs generic prescription only