The Director General of Health Services (DGHS) issued yet another order on May 12 reiterating directions that doctors in Central government hospitals prescribe only generic medicines instead of branded drugs.
The driving force behind these office orders is the standard trope that doctors are in cahoots with the pharmaceutical industry wherein the doctor receives a kickback for each prescription of a particular company’s drug. Thus, by forcing them to write only the generic names of medicines, the hope is that the pharmacist will provide the patient with the cheapest available generic drug and thus save them the cost of the more expensive branded drugs. This policy objective obviously rests on the assumption that the pharmacist is a benevolent individual who does not have his own incentives to sell the patient more expensive branded drugs. Such orders have been passed earlier and the most recent order does not hide its irritation at having to repeat previous orders; it threatens government doctors with unspecified “further action” for failing to comply with these directions.
