Medicines wasted at ease!

Thousands of rials worth medicines are wasted or end up in incinerator every year in the country due to surplus dosages and people visiting multiple physicians.

Experts, medics and common people, whom the Observer spoke to, contended that the only solution is prescribing the right medicines in correct dosages.

Dr Hamed al Sinawi, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, says, ‘doctor shopping’ is one of the main reasons that leads to surplus medicines reaching the patients.

“Some patients visit more than one doctor for the same ailment. Some even run to the doctor for even a mild illness, especially those who have insurance coverage. All the doctors may not write the same brand of medicines although their clinical effect and generic names are same,” says Dr Hamed. Generic medicines are usually cheaper because of lower research and development costs, but they have the same ingredient as the branded ones. Medicines mostly wasted are costly antibiotics — even though they are prescribed in specific quantities for a particular period of time — painkillers, paracetamol, anti-histamines and cough syrups. Unused medicines at home means that patients are not getting the benefit that they are ought to get from their prescriptions. It is a huge waste, Dr Hamed points out. According to a pharmacologist, wastage occurs due to less consumption than what is prescribed and government directives on selling medicines as entire units. “There is always a big gap between what is prescribed and what we dispense to the patients. Law requires that medicines be dispensed as entire units.