the goan I network
PANAJI
Pharmacists in Chemists and Druggist stores of Panaji are increasingly coming across prescriptions presented by clientele which are sounding Greek to them.
And, it’s not the conventionally poor handwriting of doctors that is the culprit but the proliferation of brand names which is flooding the retail pharma market.
Patients are running from pillar to post to buy medicines with cases of doctors prescribing medicines with unrecognisable brand names on the rise and pharmacists in Panaji say they are encountering dozens of such prescriptions on a daily basis.
Such prescriptions are usually coming from doctors in the GMC’s out-patient department, who incidentally are not obligated to write their names. In such instances, the patients involved find it difficult to trace back the doctor and seek an alternative medication.
“Very often, patients come to us begging for medicines with rare brand names. Mostly, they have already gone around
in circles in the city pharmacies searching for these medicines but are unable to get them,” said a pharmacist, who did not wish to be named.
“We feel sorry for such patients, but there is not much we can do to help as they refuse to accept substitute medicines of good companies having the same composition,” the pharmacist added.
Many pharmacists The Goan interviewed on the issue say that when crores of rupees are spent by the GMC annually to supply free medicines to patients, it is odd that so many medicines with brand names which are not available at the GMC’s pharmacy or even in the retail pharma market are being prescribed by doctors on OPD duty.
GMC’s Medical Superintendent Dr Shivanand Bandekar however told The Goan, that they provide free drugs, called NLEM drugs (National List of Essential Medicines) for chronic ailments only. “Other than these, in the OPD, it is not binding for us to give free medicines. For in-patients, however, we give all the medicines in the wards,” Dr Bandekar said.
President of the Chemists and Druggists Association of Goa, Albert D’Sa, when contacted said that pharmacies keep products with different brand names. Unless those prescribed by doctors are very popular brands, the medicines will not be available by default in the drug stores.
“Even top company brands are sometimes not available in every pharmacy. It all depends on the demand and supply trends,” D’Sa said.
That said, and all parties shrugging their shoulders over the problem, patients or their attendants will now have to request doctors to scribble multiple options on their prescriptions else be prepared to run in circles hunting for a pharmacy that will have in stock the rare brand name listed on that dreaded piece of paper called the doctor’s prescription.
