NEW DELHI, Sept 21:
Cricketer-turned-Parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife and Punjab Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Navjot Kaur met Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for discussing steps to improve health services in the country.
Speaking to reporters here today Ms Kaur said, “I highlighted some urgent corrective measures for the uplift of mandatory health services in the country.”
“My sole ambition is mass awareness which will have profound effect in the healthcare system without hardly an added financial burden on the Government,” she added.
She said, “I demanded the formation of a uniform drug policy regarding price control of drugs, wherein we break nexus between drug manufacturers, drug inspectors, chemists, medical representatives and doctors.”
“The Drugs (Price Control) Order 1995, promulgated under the E C Act has effectively controlled the soaring prices of essential drugs, but at the same time it has dismally failed to contain the daylight robbery of poor patients by some large scale and small scale manufacturers, especially by non-scheduled generic drug manufacturers,” she said.
Ms Kaur, who herself is a doctor, further said, “Unfortunately the manufacturers have made it a habit to display an inflated MRP on the labels of the generic drugs, blown up by several times more then their real costs.”
“Practically they print the MRP on the whims and fancies, but sell at a price on par with that of price controlled branded counterparts,” Dr Kaur said, adding “the greedy retailers, who get the stock for a minimal cost, sell at the exhorbitant inflated MRP as per the labels.”
“This is the modus operandi of the daylight robbery, without transgressing any law, yet the poor is looted, it’s a shame,” she said.
Exposing further medical lapses Dr Kaur said, “Medical traders can earn 200-300 per cent profit on generic drugs compared to branded drugs because multinational companies are buying generic drugs at a very low cost and selling them under their brand names at exorbitant prices, which is a case of cheating.”
The Government should seriously think on forming a uniform drug policy regarding price control of drugs on urgent basis, she signed off. (UNI)
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