Union Ministry asks doctors to give reasons for prescribing antibiotics

The initiative is aimed at checking misuse, and overuse of antimicrobials: DGHS

Hyderabad: In a major initiative to curb misuse of antimicrobials like antibiotics, antiseptics, and antifungal drugs, the Director General of Health Services (DGHS), union Health Ministry, has now made it mandatory for doctors to mention the reasons why they are advising the use of such drugs in the patient’s prescription.

In addition to clearly mentioning the name of the antibiotics, doctors must also provide indication or justification for advising patients to take such drugs. The decision to direct senior doctors including associations representing them to mention indications was taken following reports of rampant abuse of antibiotics in the country and the increasing risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among patients across the country.

---

A few days ago, the DGHS, Dr Atul Goel, wrote to all the State governments in the country to ensure doctors follow the practice of clearly mentioning indications.

“While pharmacists are being reminded to implement schedule H and H1 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules and sell antibiotics on valid prescriptions, it is important that doctors write the indications on the prescription while they prescribe antimicrobials. Doctors across the country should note that from now on, it is mandatory practice to write indications/reasons/justifications while they prescribe the antimicrobials,” Dr Goel in the letter said.

The increased AMR is a result of many factors, but according to specialists involved in tracking AMR, the foremost cause is the overall volume of antibiotic consumption, particularly for medical conditions that do not require such therapy. Rational use of a drug involves using the correct drug with appropriate indication i.e. the reason to prescribe the drug should be based on sound clinical consideration.

Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials were one of the main drivers in the development of drug-resistant pathogens. With few new antibiotics in the research and development pipeline, prudent antibiotic use was the only option to delay the development of resistance, the DGHS said.