- This topic has 11 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 3 months ago by
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CMy mother buys medicines from a government dispensary. The following sequence has happened 4-5 times in the last few months:
1. She shows the prescription and her card and asks for the medicine. The employee gives her a medicine of a different name. She asks if this is the same medicine and he replies yes, this is the same medicine but from a different brand. Everything is legit until this point.
2. She comes home. My sibling is a medical student. She checks the medicine and often finds that a completely different medicine is given, that is, a multivitamin is given for an antibiotic. Also, in the receipt, the medicine is neither a multivitamin nor an antibiotic but something else entirely.
When she was handed the wrong medicine again today, she aggressively argued with the employee that it is not the correct medicine but he didn’t give the correct medicine and said, don’t argue in things you’re not educated in, I know what I’m selling etc. This forces us to buy the correct medicine from the market, while we get free medicine in the dispensary.
I don’t have any proof but my intuition tells me that they are writing off the medicine in our receipt, which they are actually selling in the black market. This must amount to lacs of rupees a month. Not to mention that they may write off opioids like this too and contribute to illegal drugs market. This all on top of people’s health becoming worse, most people there are not much educated and thus never question the employee. What to do in this situation?
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MYep its a racket. Report it. if the pharmacist gives a different medicine – you can check it using drug databases like CIMS / MIMS. Show him that its not the same or similar formulation or ask him to put a note in his handwriting that he is giving you drug B instead of Drug A. That way at least you have some record of incorrect dispensing.
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PMention the dispensary name and location as specifically as you can. And all upvote the post as much as you can so it gets popular and don’t give out your personal details on reddit so you could be tracked.
This is a serious issue. Life saving medication is probably being taken away (stolen) from the needy and sold illegally for profit by those employees/ involved. Make this post popular but keep yourself safe as well. These guys could be dangerous or not.
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FDifferent brands but same composition often for cheaper price. You should verify it online before confirming purchase if pharmacist is suggesting different brand. Probably the pharmacist is new or messed up.
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SYou don’t need to be a pharmacist or a doctor for this. Look up the generic name of what was prescribed (usually a longer name, sometimes with two words, you can Google this) and look up the generic name for what is being given to you (you can find this behind the packaging, usually mentioned under composition). If it doesn’t match, specifically ask the pharmacist that you need the <generic name>.
You can try tipping off local journalists or news outlets that seem trustworthy. Or file a complaint (not sure where).
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