Medicines prescribed at KGMU: Admn hopes revision of e-Hospital portal will work in patients’ favour
Patients complained that doctors of KGMU were prescribing medicines that were not available in the hospital’s pharmacies
A revision on the e-Hospital portal of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) is on the cards following reports of a faulty prescription process at the university, due to which the patients were suffering. The revision on the portal is expected to go live in a few days.
Patients complained that doctors of KGMU were prescribing medicines that were not available in the hospital’s pharmacies. This forced patients to seek medicines outside the hospital, or settle for substitutes suggested by external pharmacists, while those available inside the hospital are at subsidised rates. Only those medications are stocked in a department’s pharmacy as instructed by the doctors there.
Doctors at KGMU stated that the root of the problem was a communication gap between the hospital pharmacists and the doctors themselves.
Dr KK Singh, faculty member of the general surgery department said, “Now the stock and availability of medicines in the pharmacy will be visible to prescribing doctors, on the e-portal platform on NIC (National Informatics Centre). That way, not only will doctors know whether or not patients will be able to get the medicine at the hospital, but they will limit their prescriptions to the medicines stocked in KGMU,” he explained.
The hospital’s revolving fund is meant for the medicines which are made available to patients at 60% discount. “Now, all the medicines are being fed on the e-hospital portal. The medicines will be visible on the system. This will help doctors know about medicines we provide under HRF (Hospital Revolving Fund),” said Dr Anoop Verma, head of KGMU’s HRF Committee.
The expectation is that following the addition to the e-portal, the doctors will keep track of available medicines and write their prescriptions accordingly.
“We are usually not aware when pharmacies run out of a particular medicine and when it is restocked,” said another doctor at the hospital, member of the KGMU Teachers’ Association. “Patients inform us that the medicines we prescribe are not available in the pharmacies.” He further said that sometimes, on not finding the medicine at the hospital, they ask their local pharmacists for substitutes without consulting with the doctors at KGMU - “this is worrying, because we cannot trust pharmacists prescribing medicines to patients.”
Dr Singh further explained, “The doctors should prescribe only what is available in the hospital, and also be informed in case the restocking of the medicine needs to be pursued. The online process is ongoing and will be completed soon.”
Whether or not the revision of the e-Hospital portal will be the answer to the problems patients face once a doctor prescribes medicines, remains to be seen.
