If the government keeps its word, there will soon be no prescriptions in government hospitals. Patients will not be forced to buy medicines from the nearby medical shops. They will get the medicines prescribed by the doctors across the counter, as the government is firm on ending ‘prescription culture’.
Responding to a question by R. Dharma Sena of the Congress, Minister for Health and Family Welfare K.R. Ramesh Kumar on Monday announced on the floor of the Upper House that it was the duty of the government to provide every medicine prescribed by doctors in government hospitals.
He said the present tendering process would be changed and supply of medicines would be based on the requirement of lower units (primary health centres) of the health system in the State.
Admitting “systemic failure” in the case pertaining to unnecessary hysterectomies conducted in Birur of Kadur taluk in 2014, Mr. Ramesh Kumar wondered how the gynaecologist in the Birur hospital was allowed to continue even after he was charged with conducting hysterectomies illegally.
“He should have been dismissed from service. Letting him continue service is a disgrace to the government,” he said.
‘It is the duty of the government to provide medicines prescribed by doctors in these hospitals’
