KARACHI: The breach of medical ethics in Out Patient Department (OPD) hours is on the rise at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) due to increasing influence of medical representatives in rush hours, affecting the patients’ care.
An administrative official at JPMC said that the medical sales representatives and doctors are not following the instructions of administration and Sindh Health Department. He said that the nexus of doctors and medical sales representatives of drug companies are affecting the patients’ care in rush hours.
He said breach of ethics can be seen almost in all major hospitals of Karachi including Civil Hospital Karachi, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, National Institute of Child Health and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, where the medical representatives start roaming in different wards with the beginning of OPD to get the doctors’ attention due to poor check and balance system in these healthcare centres.
The official said that this malpractice is on the rise in JPMC despite the fact that provincial Health Department had introduced a centralised system of drug procurement for public sector hospitals of the province over two years ago. The medical representatives are not allowed in any hospital in the hours of OPD but in JPMC, the medical representatives reach at 10 am on daily basis and stay in the institution till departure of doctors, he added. He said the medical representatives use different tactics to lure doctors to increase the sale.
He further said that the patients suffer a lot due to breach of medical ethics in the healthcare as doctors prescribe them unnecessary and very costly medicines with the direction to purchase them from particular medial stores so as to increase sales of their favourite pharmaceutical companies that give them rewards.
He said the incumbent administration is unable to control these illegal activities and medical representatives are openly breaching the medical ethics. He said there is hospital’s own pharmacy, where all kind of necessary medicines are available but still medicines are prescribed to be bought from private medical stores.
Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre focal person Dr Jawaid Akhter Jamali said that no medical representative is allowed to visit wards that can affect patients’ care during rush hours and the administration has adopted a clear policy regarding the visit of medical representatives in premises of the hospital.
He said the administration had issued an office order two days ago and banned the entry of medical representatives in wards during OPD hours adding that these medical representatives’ can only meet doctors in their office hours after OPD timing.