E-DRUG: Sustainable prescribing compliance at PHC centres in Nepal (5)
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Dear all
The article on improving prescribing practices in PHC facilities in Nepal is interesting. After so many years of experience in propagating the concept of Essential drugs and Rational Use of Drugs in the health care system in India, what we have found out is it is easy to preach RUD rather than practicing it in true spirits.
Even though various measures have been advocated in propagating the concept of RUD at the doctor, pharmacists and consumer level, it has never been an easy task to standardize its uniform practice.
The problems in implementing RUD effectively lies in the fact that we always try to educate the presribing doctors and practicing pharmacist who are born out of an old school of drug prescribing and dispensing practices. Already their mindset is primed in a different concept and hence it is very difficult to change it at a later stage.
Inspite of the best multimodal approaches in creating awareness about the benefits and advantages of RUD among the prescribers and dispensers, the final outcome is always doubtful.
So what is the way out of this situation?
Catch them young, as usual is the key word here also. If you happen to go through the undergraduate medical curriculum in most of the universities both in the developed and devloping countries, it will show that not much reference or insight have been shown on the concept of Rational Use of Drugs.
The teachings on prescription writing and prescribing practices are done based on the age old conventional concepts. Unless the concept of Essential Drugs and Rational Use of Drugs is taught to the young medical students in their early formating years, it will be a herculian task to promote the concept of RUD once they become professionals due to their preformed ideas.
So it is time to go through the Pharmacological and Therapeutics curriculum and teachings to incorporate the concepts of Essential Drugs and Rational Use of Drugs so that a basic foundation is built in the minds of the young medical students and later it will be easy for the concerned authorities to reinforce the concept of RUD. This will have far reaching benefits for the patients and the society at large.
Dr.S.Gopalakrishnan
Associate Professor
Asian Institute of Medicine Science and Technology
Kedah, Malaysia
drsgopal56@yahoo.co.in