Panels to check doc prescription

TT, Siliguri, June 3: The health department today formed two committees, one each for the district hospitals in Siliguri and Darjeeling, to see if doctors were prescribing medicines by generic names.

The panels were formed a day after the chief minister had expressed displeasure over the practice of prescribing medicines by brand names.

Subir Bhowmik, the chief medical officer of health of Darjeeling, today said Mamata Banerjee had aired her concern at an administrative meeting held in Uttar Kanya here yesterday. 

“She said prescription audits should be conducted at fair price shops to stop government doctors from prescribing medicines by brand names. Accordingly, we have set up two committees which will conduct prescription audits on a fortnightly basis. The exercise, we feel, would discourage doctors from scribbling the brand names of medicines in their prescriptions,” Bhowmik said here today.

Each committee will comprise the superintendent and assistant superintendent of the respective hospital and an official from the district health department. “The committees will visit OPDs and fair price shops to check if the generic names of the drugs are written on the prescription pad,” said a source.

The CMOH said doctors found prescribing drugs by brand names would be given a warning first. “If they keep on giving the brand names of medicines, we will send their names to Swasthya Bhawan.”