Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan Islam Medical Association (PIMA) on Sunday has launched guidelines for doctors on ethical physician-pharma relationships to safeguard the interests of patients.

No such guidelines were available from Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) or Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), PIMA claimed.

On the concluding day of the medical conference, ‘Karachi Con-16’, PIMA unveiled its guidelines advising doctors to refrain from precious free gifts, lavish tours and accepting money from pharma companies for prescribing their medicines.

“Doctors should not accept expensive gifts like mobile phones, computers, ACs, should not prescribe medicine in return of money or expensive gifts and foreign or local tours and asked them not to accept physician’s samples for personal use and should not sell them further,” the Guidelines warns.

It is common practice that pharmaceutical companies give promotional items or gifts to doctors either in shape of products to oblige them for the favour.

It also said, “Physicians should never accept gifts, because it might influence the standard of care or weaken the fiduciary relationship with the patient.”

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Zakiuddin Ahmed from Riphah International University, Islamabad urged the doctors to upgrade their knowledge and skills and try to ease the sufferings of patients, instead of creating problems for them.

“Our patients are lot more aware of health issues as compared to the past. If we can’t ease their problems, which happen sometimes, we should not make their lives more miserable and we should avoid causing any further harm to them”, he added.

Sindh Secretary Health, Dr. Usman Chachar said in speech that efforts were underway to improve emergency and healthcare facilities at public sector hospitals and in this regard, collaboration were being made with local private and international organizations to overhaul the healthcare facilities in Karachi and rest of Sindh.

“Public private partnerships, hospitals and healthcare facilities were being contracted out while state-of-the art ambulance service was also being launched in two districts initially to save lives in the first couple of hours after accident and trauma incident,” Dr. Chachar stated.

Health facilities in rural parts of Sindh were also being improved with the help of private national and international organizations to save precious human lives in case of emergencies, he added.

Several scientific sessions including, GI and Liver Diseases, Women Health, Neurology, Radiology, Common Problems in Ear, Nose and Throat, Orthopedics and Rheumatology, Psychiatry and Mental Health, Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases, Common Surgical Problems, Cardio-Metabolic Disorders, and a plenary session on End of Life and Care of a dying person in an Islamic perspective were held where experts of their respective fields spoke and shared about availability of treatment in the country.