Citizen activists have submitted a petition to the Pokhara Institute of Health Sciences demanding that doctors and health workers immediately implement the system of writing the name 'generic' when prescribing medicines. The Citizens' Campaign for Policy Reform submitted a petition to the Institute's Director Dr. Premraj Pangeni on Tuesday, stating that the tendency for doctors to prescribe medicines using the company's 'trade' name is a violation of the law, code of conduct and the spirit of public health.

In the petition submitted by the campaign, it has stated that the legal basis including the Public Health Service Act 2075, the Nepal Medical Council's code of conduct, and the circular issued by the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital have made it clear that doctors must write the generic name of the medicine. However, the campaign's coordinator Ganesh Bahadur Thapa said that the trend of doctors writing the company's 'trade name' in government institutions including the Western Regional Hospital has not stopped.

'When doctors prescribe expensive company medicines in government hospitals that serve low and middle class citizens, there is a huge financial burden on the health of the people,' he said. 'This action has reduced the effectiveness of the health insurance program and violated the fundamental rights of citizens related to health.'

In the petition, the campaign alleges that the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and doctors has increased the recommendation of medicines motivated by profit rather than the interests of the patients. ‘Patients have lost the freedom to choose cheap and quality medicines,’ the petition states, ‘Insured patients are forced to buy medicines from expensive private pharmacies because they cannot get medicines available at government pharmacies.’ The

campaign has also requested the foundation to make the price list of medicines sold at pharmacies public and to make arrangements for easy information for citizens. Doctors and health workers have been urged to inform the campaign for testing if they have doubts about the quality of the medicine.

The campaign coordinator Thapa warned that the foundation will monitor the implementation of the generic medicine recommendation system in the near future and take legal action against doctors and health workers who violate the law.

Understanding the petition, the foundation’s director Dr. Premraj Pangeni praised the efforts of the campaign and said that steps were being taken to reform the policy. ‘The issue of medicines is very sensitive,’ he said, ‘The efforts of the citizens’ campaign to bring about improvements in this are commendable.’ According to him, the foundation has been requesting doctors to prescribe medicines under generic names. ‘We have been repeatedly urging doctors to write generic names through meetings. Since there are more insured patients, trade names are not entertained,’ he said.

Stating that since the hospital will purchase medicines through tenders, only medicines that are registered with the DDA and have quality assurance will be purchased, he said, ‘Low-quality medicines are not acceptable. Only medicines approved by the DDA are of quality.’

He also said that there are difficulties in service delivery due to technical problems in the insurance program’s server system, lack of hospital infrastructure, and delays in building construction. ‘We have been repeatedly urging the board to solve the insurance server problem,’ he said, ‘Now administrative measures will also be tightened to implement the generic medicine system and provide cheap and quality medicines to patients.’