In a bid to stop doctors from pushing expensive drugs unnecessarily, the Health Ministry is looking to pass a bill that will prevent pharmaceutical companies from providing gifts and freebies to doctors.

Speaking at the Nationalistic Doctor’s Forum program, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Gulam Nabi Azad said that a number of doctors are prescribing expensive drugs to patients even when there are a number of cheaper options available.

In each case, such doctors are often provided with a number of free gifts or paid in cash along with pleasure trips, often to foreign countries. Azad revealed that his ministry has already been sent a proposal by the Medical Council of India, urging them to curb such practices and has promised that action will soon be taken to abolish such practices.

“Pharmaceutical companies send doctors on foreign trips and load them with gifts. So, instead of giving normal free medicines and some that are cheaper, the doctors prescribe medicines to please these companies whose hospitality and patronage they enjoy. We are going to ban this soon”, he said.


Source-Medindia
RAS