Act against erring doctors: Minister to administration

Our Correspondent

Palampur, December 13

Two doctors serving in the local Civil Hospital are under the scanner for prescribing costly medicines to patients. These doctors have been caught after a medical audit of their prescriptions was conducted by the state government.

Health Minister Vipin Parmar said here on Thursday that he had directed the authorities to initiate action against the erring doctors who had violated the guidelines of the state government while prescribing medicines to patents, which were not covered in the policy of the government. He said Himachal Pradesh was the only state in the country, which had started online medical prescription of doctors along with its medical audit, to abolish rampant corruption in the Health Department.

He said despite the fact that the government was providing 90 per cent drugs free of cost to the patients visiting the hospitals, many doctors were prescribing costly drugs to patients and forcing them to buy from outside shops where the doctors had vested interest.

Acting on a complaint of a patient, the police also registered criminal cases against a doctor posted in the local Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) and a private hospital of Chandigarh for allegedly conducting an angioplasty and inserting stents on an ex-serviceman without having any ailment.

A cardio specialist posted at a private hospital at Chandigarh had also been booked on the complaint of Jagan Nath, an ex-serviceman and a resident of Palampur.

Meanwhile a senior officer of the state Health Department said the country’s medical regulator, Medical Council of India (MCI), had also warned the doctors of strict action if they failed to adhere to its guideline on prescribing drugs in generic names.

The Medical Council of India’s directive had come after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of putting in place a legal framework to ensure that the doctors prescribed low-cost generic medicines to the patients so that the patients were not inconvenienced.