PEW urges government to launch patients' awareness programmes

The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday called upon government and civil society to launch awareness programmes for patients. A good number of doctors are losing professionalism to other priorities which is jeopardising health of unsuspecting patients who needs to be educated, it said.
Dr Murtaza Mughal, President PEW, said that increasing financial ties between doctors and pharmaceutical companies means those require medical care were paying for the commercial bribes without knowing it. He said that a PEW survey revealed that many doctors were over-medicating patients for profits that has become important, safety was not.
"Living longer and healthier lives with the help of proper medicine has become difficult", he said. He said that doctors interviewed during the survey accepted that preventing abuse and educating patients was their responsibility. However, they were found reluctant to disclose their monetary arrangements with the pharmaceuticals, he said.
Murtaza said that it was an open secret that doctors prescribe costly and substandard medicines to get commission.
However, not a single healthcare official or pharmacist was found willing to report those engaged in violations, he said. The survey found that hundreds of sub-standard companies were pumping their medicines into market, he said. He added that even owners of medical storeowners have established companies producing drugs with possible fatal consequences.
They offer huge margins for the distributors and sale through medical practitioners, which amounts to prescribing poison in the name of life saving drugs, he said. He further said that the WHO said that no pharmaceutical can function without a separate research and analysis wing but in Pakistan unskilled workers were producing medicines with the blessing of those who were entrusted to stop it. Some businesspersons are importing medicines labelled as food items and selling them through doctors with the connivance of regulators. Organised crime against humanity should be stopped in medical profession, healthcare institutions, private clinics, and pharma companies, PEW demanded.