Strategy to reach free medicine to poor patients

The government has been running a few essential drug manufacturing companies to cater to the need of government health establishments. The objective behind this is to supply medicines free of cost to the poor patients who come for treatment to the government hospitals and healthcare facilities. But the noble objective of the government is defeated as those medicines hardly reach the poor patients. The drugs, instead of reaching the poor patients, go to the private pharmacies through informal syndicates. Media reports also reveal information that the medicines of the government health care establishments are sold outside and patients have to purchase those medicines from the nearby medicine stores. Every year medicines worth a billion taka are smuggled out of the government hospitals. There must be an end of such malpractices. In order to prevent the theft of hospital medicines, the authorities can adopt the strategy of manufacturing drugs by their generic names instead of trade names.  The tablets and capsules should also be packed in PET bottles in large quantity. It should also be mandatory for the doctors to prescribe medicines in generic name. According to the physician's prescription, the authorities will give the patient the required quantity in small paper envelops writing the generic name of the medicine. This may be an effective way of preventing theft of medicines made and meant for free distribution among the poor patients.

Md Ashraf Hossain    
Central Bashabo, Dhaka