The tricks of the medical trade

The ongoing controversy over generic and branded drugs between Health Department authorities and medical professionals has no effect on the common man, plebeians like us. The general public is basically unaware of the different drug names. All they want is to be able to obtain suitable and efficient drugs through proper medical sources at nominal, reasonable prices.

Today, what we face are exorbitant fees charged by doctors through the channelling system and the heavy cost of the drugs they prescribe. Doctors prescribe branded drugs because their interests are being looked after by the drug dealers.

The average patient seeking medical help wants a cure. He is not interested in the names and category of the drugs prescribed to him. The doctor’s prescription will contain the names of branded drugs as named by the drug dealer, and if the patient requests a similar, alternative drug, the pharmacist will hesitate to give it.

Whether generic or branded, the drugs must match the doctor’s prescription. All professionals, whatever their category they work in, practise “the tricks of the trade”. The man in the street has no choice. He has to accept the norms applicable to any profession, willingly or not.

By Tikiri Bandara Ekanayake, Ampitiya