Dr Sidhu out to break nexus between drug manufacturers and suppliers

by Punjabnewswire4u (Balbir)

CHANDIGARH, SEPT 21 

Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Health and Family welfare Punjab, Dr Navjot Sidhu today called on the Union Heath Minister Mr Gulam Nabi Azad and discussed various steps required to be taken to improve health services in India in general and Punjab state in particular.

             Highlighting the steps to be taken while improving the health systems in the state, Dr. Sidhu reiterated that formation of a union drug policy regarding price control of drugs was the first essential step to be taken so that the nexus between drug manufacturers---Drug Inspectors—Chemists—Medical Representatives---Doctors could be broken. The Drugs (Price Control) order 1995, promulgated under The E.C. Act, has effectively controlled the soaring prices of essential drugs. At the same time, it has dismally failed to contain the daylight robbery of poor patients by some large scale and small-scale manufacturers, especially by non-scheduled generic drug manufacturers, she added.

          Expressing concern over the high rise prices of the essential life saving drugs, Dr. Sidhu said that it was unfortunate that the intelligent manufacturers have made it a habit to display an inflated MRP on the labels of the generic drugs, blown up by several times more than their real costs which has got to be checked at the highest level. Medical Traders can earn 200-300% profit on generic drugs compared to branded drugs because multinational companies are buying generic drugs at a very low cost and selling them under their brand names at exorbitant prices.

She also laid stress to promote Psychiatry as a major subject in MBBS course because of the increasing trend of suicides and drug addiction, Psychiatry needs to be a major subject and not just one question part of medicine they should be given special incentives so that they are available to the public getting full support from the mass scale counseling centers at the each nook and corner including jails. No treatment should be initiated without spiritual support by NGO’s with yoga, pranayama and satsang sessions. A person attempting suicide out of sheer frustration needs immediate treatment, compassion and counseling, not punishment. 90-95% of the patients want to come out of drug addiction and suicidal tendency and also 90-95% patients are known to be treated alone by Counseling.