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With the September 28 gazette notification of the Medical Council of India directing doctors should prescribe medicines to patients only in their generic or chemical names, Pharmacy Practice Regulations (PPR) 2015 introduced by the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) will also have to be seriously considered for immediate implementation.
The Regulations will soon become an inevitable part of the pharmacy profession and healthcare management, according to experts in pharmacy.
Stressing the importance of the legibility of the prescriptions, the MCI issued the notification which says, "every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters." It was a revision of its 2002 code of ethics that wanted the doctors to do so on their discretion. After long discussion among all the stakeholders, in last July, the Union health ministry had approved to amend the Indian Medical Council (Professional conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, to incorporate one sentence, “every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters and he/she shall ensure that there is a rational prescription and use of drugs.” Special directions to doctors and hospitals, including private, were also given as part of this notification.
According to pharmacy experts, the generic prescriptions of the doctors will help ensure the full time presence of the qualified pharmacists in the pharmacies. As part of regulating the pharmacy profession, the PPR also wants the presence of qualified pharmacists in the pharmacies whenever they are in operation. It clearly says that dispensing of drugs should be carried out by the qualified registered pharmacists. In the case of generic prescription, only a qualified pharmacist can dispense the correct generic version to the patients.
Dr K G Revikumar, chairman of the Kerala Institute of Drug Studies, said the MCI notification gives stimulus to the profession of pharmacy in a big way because none other than a qualified pharmacist can dispense the medicines. it will also encourage the pharmacists to be present in the store as long as it works. Besides, the pharmacists can provide their professional services like patients counselling, adverse drug reactions reporting and primary care to all uncomplicated simple illnesses.
Reacting to the MCI direction, an ENT specialist doctor, M Jayachandran, from the government general hospital in Adoor in Kerala, said this will not bring the desired result as the patients will not get the high quality branded medicines. All the generic products are not hundred per cent good in quality. Besides, writing generic version always is difficult for the doctors sitting in the OPD in the government hospitals. He said the pharmacists also need to study the generic names of the medicines.
In 2013, when the MCI issued one special direction regarding generic prescription, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had wanted that the pharmacists must follow some ethical dispensing of prescription medicines.
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