- Patients Suffer due to violence of medical representatives
- Experts advise making accurate diagnosis system
- Numerous allegations against many doctors
Medical services in public and private hospitals are being severely disrupted due to the violence of medical representatives. In their temptation, many doctors add a list of unnecessary medicines to the patients. Due to the use of these unnecessary medicines, the healths risks of the patients are increasing as well as they also have to suffer financially. The harassment of representatives of many pharmaceutical companies is making the right of the common people to get government medical care uncertain.
Rafid Sheikh is a resident of Old Dhaka. Her five-year-old son Rashid is suffering from cough and cold fever. She brought her baby to a private medical college hospital two weeks ago. She bought a ticket of Tk 50 and showed her child to an outpatient doctor. The doctor sees his child and writes the names of five syrups, including H-plus syrup, antibiotics and vitamins in the blood. Even after taking all the medicines, the child did not improve.
Rafid said, "I was forced to go to a pediatrician as the condition of the child deteriorated. He told me that there is no need to take 4 to 5 medicines for common cold and fever. Rather, it is more likely to harm the child. The doctor who prescribed the drug may have written so many medicines in the interest of a company or lack of experience."
Not only the above-mentioned incident, there are numerous allegations against many doctors. They prescribe many unnecessary medicines in the patient's medical letter. And doctors write their favorite company's medicines in their prescriptions, as well as write unnecessarily more expensive medicines. Again, many times medicines that have nothing to do with the disease are also written in the prescription.
During a visit to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), BIRDEM Hospital, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Shishu Hospital and Institute and Dhaka National Medical College, patients were seen crowding the hospitals waiting for doctors. But they are busy with medical representatives. And medical representatives are busy taking pictures of the prescriptions that doctors given to patients. They took these pictures and sent them to their higher authorities as evidence.
In this way, the main function of the hospital, which is to prescribe treatment to patients, is severely disrupted. As a result, ordinary patients and their relatives suffer a lot. Especially female patients are extremely uncomfortable. As a result, their medical expenses increased several times and many became destitute.
Patients and relatives allege that doctors have become hostage to the sales representative of the pharmaceutical company. The main reason for this is to receive gifts from various pharmaceutical companies. Many doctors are influenced to prescribe 'unnecessary' and overpriced medicines due to the greed of regular payments.
According to a study by the Institute of Health Economics of Dhaka University, 44 percent of the total health expenditure in the country is spent on medicines. And 65 percent of the person's additional expenditure is spent on medicines. The individual's own expenditure on treatment (which the individual spends outside of government spending) has increased. In 2015, the cost of a person's own medical care was Tk 67 out of Tk 100. And in 2020, it stood at Tk 69. At least 16 percent of patients are deprived of medical services in the country due to this additional cost. Similarly, 85.1 percent of the tests have to be done in different diagnostic centers. As a result, the cost of treatment of long-term diseases such as cancer, kidney dialysis and diabetes is increasing day by day.
Experts said that about half of the money spent on health care in the country goes to medicines. Again, sometimes there is a way to cure the disease at a low cost, but it is not done. Because in the interest of pharmaceutical companies and under various temptations, doctors also write unnecessary medicines in the management letter. And due to excessive drug use, additional costs are imposed on patients. Not only that, it increases the risk of kidney, liver, and various non-communicable diseases. Therefore, while writing prescriptions for patients, doctors should keep an eye on it so that there is no commercial purpose in it and it is important to prevent the misuse of medicines in patient management.
AK Lutful Kabir, associate professor of the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology at Dhaka University, said it is not right to say that all doctors prescribe unnecessary medicines in the patient's prescription. There is no way to deny that many people write. It is often seen that the name of antibiotics is written in the doctor's prescription even in the common cold and fever of children. Later, playing antibiotics again became resistant to germs. Even after playing antibiotics, the patient is not cured.
He said many unnecessary medicines are often written in the interest of pharmaceutical companies. Sometimes the same company's medicines are given to all patients, which is never right. Excessive medication prescribing also wastes more of the patient's money. This violates the oath they take to serve patients as a doctor.
Renowned medicine expert and Prime Minister's personal physician and Emeritus Professor Dr ABM Abdullah said there is no way to deny the misuse of medicines in our country. We want to heal our patients, but we also want their safety. Many drugs have immediate side effects and in many cases increase health risks. Therefore, patients should be diagnosed correctly and given medicines. For this, there should be adequate preparation before giving medicines. There is more misuse of vitamins and antibiotics in our country. Many doctors cannot ensure with an antibiotic. Then they prescribed some antibiotics. But this creates a tendency for more drugs. In addition, many doctors prescribe excessive medicines without needing to prescribe, it is important to stop.
The expert said that it is not the case that doctors have to prescribe their medicines just because people from pharmaceutical companies tell them. If necessary, the doctor can write. Again, new drugs are being brought to the market. If those medicines do not reach the doctors, they will not know. However, if a doctor prescribes medicine under any persuasion or temptation, it is his own matter. He also thinks that if the diagnosis system is accurate, the tendency to use more medicines may be reduced.
ARS
