Govt plans to supply essential medicines free

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said the initiative will provide affordable health care by reducing out-of-pocket expenses for medicines.

"There is a provision of Rs 100 crore in the budget of 2012-13 for this purpose", he added.

He said the initiative "will promote rational use of medicines. The initiative is based on the Tamil Nadu model where medicines procured in bulk by the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation, in generic name, directly from the manufacturers are supplied free of cost through an IT-enabled supply chain management system to the public."

 

Replying to another question, the Minister said government is taking steps to ensure that doctors prescribe generic drugs to patients.

"Instructions have been issued to all central government hospitals to advise medical practitioners to prescribe only generic versions of medicines and to mention generic equivalents wherever branded medicines are prescribed," the Minister said.