Surat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that his government would make it legally binding for the doctors to prescribe cheaper generic drugs for the people on their prescriptions.

Addressing a function in Katargam here after inaugurating a multi specialty private hospital here this morning, Modi said that his government has taken various steps to provide better health facilities to the poor and middle class. The government has framed Jan Aushadhi policy and was the one which after 15 years since the earlier Atal Bihari Vajpayee government has brought health policy.

He said that there were numerous problems in health sector including the scarcity of doctors and costly medicines. Such was the plight of the health sector that if even a single person of a middle class family becomes critically ill, the whole financial condition of the family goes haywire. Other important things like construction of house and marriage of daughters are left unfinished.

Modi said that a powerful section ( medicine companies) has become unhappy with him but despite that he has continued his efforts to better the health facility for poor and middle class. He has taken steps to fix the prices of 700 important medicines and decreased the prices of stents. Cheaper generic medicines have been made available but still there were doctors who intentionally write prescriptions in such a way that the patients had to go to buy costlier medicines.
‘But we are going to make it legally binding for doctors to prescribe only generic drugs in future.

In his typical style, Modi said, ”While I was in Gujarat I used to make many people angry (owing to taking pro-people steps against their interests). Now In Delhi too, I do so. Every day I do something which makes someone angry. Now the medicine companies are angry with me.”

He said that the clean Indian mission was also directly associated with health and well-being. His government was also doing things to make more and more people adopt Yoga for good health.

PM Modi said that post independence a perception was created that everything should be done by the government while since ancient times it was a tradition of India to do social works with the active involvement of people. The Dharmshalas and water sources like wells and others were made and maintained by people. Now again that feeling was gaining support.

About inaugurating the hospital whose foundation was also laid by him, Modi said that he wanted to end the ‘fashion’ of merely laying foundation stones of various projects which were then left incomplete.

He also said that he would visit Israel in July as the first visiting Indian Prime Minister and would also act as a representative of the diamond industry of Surat looking at the relation between the diamond industry here and the country in west Asia.

DeshGujarat