Yes the title is taken from that of DrPak's latest post. It is unexpected rain season in this country and I thought we might as well enjoy it by coinciding the posts. Its been drizzling and raining here for the past one hour. But unlike Islamabad the electricity has left to a better place than my home. I have been made a slave of a battery and a notebook. This has not dampened my spirit which feels rejuvenated after the change in weather which is expected to stay another 24 hours. Not my mood but the weather that is.
I was taking a survey of the pharmacy market in this city today. I was looking for my mother's inhaler. Only two shops out of 30 odd shops keep that inhaler. Both had the one that was expiring in march 2006. Since my mother is able to use one inhaler for about two months these were of no use to me. When I pointed out the expiry date on the inhaler both pharmacists were quick in offering me a 50% discount on the purchase there and then. That didn't shock me as much since I know the ways of these pharmacists. What shocked me was their I-am-doing-you-a-favour attitude. I mean first of all they were selling me a product that is going to expire in no more than two days and then they were offering me a discount and thinking that they were doing me a favour.
I am sure both of them were there without any formal education in the trade or even if they had any there was no sign of it showing.
This brings me to the sorry state of affairs in the pharmacies of Pakistan. Almost all the pharmacist give drugs without any precaution to their prescribed use. I can buy a number of potentially addictive drugs over the counter. My father once told me that the richest among them are those who sell drugs of abuse. Every morning we can see a line of addicts sitting in front of the busiest pharmacy in the town before it opens formally. That is the time when all such illicit drugs are dispensed to all these addicts. This goes on even in broad daylight right in front of the District Headquarters Hospital. No authority is concerned.
Then there is a large number of pharmacists who sell fake drugs. Just today a drug rep was arguing with the pharmacist on the commission from the fake drug that he had sold over some time. Right in front of my eyes. In broad daylight. They weren't even bothered at the fact that I was standing there. All they were concerned was with their profits. One had to win eventually. For the other it was a honorable compromise.
The medicines are getting expensive by the day. They are getting less effective by the minute. Most doctors are ignorant of the proper way of prescribing drugs in this country. Drug companies make full use of their ignorance. This world is going to hell I tell you!
Anyways I decided not to avail the opportunity of discount and ruin my money over their deals. I have asked the company to send me the latest from the stock. But that will happen no sooner then Monday. What will my mother do till then. Well I will try to control her symptoms with alternatives till the time she gets her inhaler but wonder how a layman would have suffered. He might even have bought the drug on full price without even realizing that they were going to get expired.
Well I remember another anecdotal story. We have a good pulmonologist in town. He had a no good brother. So the pulmonologist opened up a pharmacy for him. Pracriced right nest to the pharmacy and this brought very good business to the pharmacist brother. His shop has been ther for the past twenty years. Now the brother has grown old and his sons have taken over the charge. Under their rule I most often see them misusing the trust of people. They are no doctors but run their practice in their doctor uncle's clinic when he is not there. Their usual drill is take vitals of the patient. Give him anti inflammatory grug. Give him a multivitamin plus steroid injection. Give him some anti hypertensive just in case. In the evening you cant buy any drug. There is a hole stackof injections filled with a red liquid, 100 to 200 of them, supposedly multivitamin plus steroid. Ther is a long queue of 'patients' waiting to get the miracle shot from the 'best doctors' in the town.
This is the shape of affairs in the country I live in. God help us all!
I was taking a survey of the pharmacy market in this city today. I was looking for my mother's inhaler. Only two shops out of 30 odd shops keep that inhaler. Both had the one that was expiring in march 2006. Since my mother is able to use one inhaler for about two months these were of no use to me. When I pointed out the expiry date on the inhaler both pharmacists were quick in offering me a 50% discount on the purchase there and then. That didn't shock me as much since I know the ways of these pharmacists. What shocked me was their I-am-doing-you-a-favour attitude. I mean first of all they were selling me a product that is going to expire in no more than two days and then they were offering me a discount and thinking that they were doing me a favour.
I am sure both of them were there without any formal education in the trade or even if they had any there was no sign of it showing.
This brings me to the sorry state of affairs in the pharmacies of Pakistan. Almost all the pharmacist give drugs without any precaution to their prescribed use. I can buy a number of potentially addictive drugs over the counter. My father once told me that the richest among them are those who sell drugs of abuse. Every morning we can see a line of addicts sitting in front of the busiest pharmacy in the town before it opens formally. That is the time when all such illicit drugs are dispensed to all these addicts. This goes on even in broad daylight right in front of the District Headquarters Hospital. No authority is concerned.
Then there is a large number of pharmacists who sell fake drugs. Just today a drug rep was arguing with the pharmacist on the commission from the fake drug that he had sold over some time. Right in front of my eyes. In broad daylight. They weren't even bothered at the fact that I was standing there. All they were concerned was with their profits. One had to win eventually. For the other it was a honorable compromise.
The medicines are getting expensive by the day. They are getting less effective by the minute. Most doctors are ignorant of the proper way of prescribing drugs in this country. Drug companies make full use of their ignorance. This world is going to hell I tell you!
Anyways I decided not to avail the opportunity of discount and ruin my money over their deals. I have asked the company to send me the latest from the stock. But that will happen no sooner then Monday. What will my mother do till then. Well I will try to control her symptoms with alternatives till the time she gets her inhaler but wonder how a layman would have suffered. He might even have bought the drug on full price without even realizing that they were going to get expired.
Well I remember another anecdotal story. We have a good pulmonologist in town. He had a no good brother. So the pulmonologist opened up a pharmacy for him. Pracriced right nest to the pharmacy and this brought very good business to the pharmacist brother. His shop has been ther for the past twenty years. Now the brother has grown old and his sons have taken over the charge. Under their rule I most often see them misusing the trust of people. They are no doctors but run their practice in their doctor uncle's clinic when he is not there. Their usual drill is take vitals of the patient. Give him anti inflammatory grug. Give him a multivitamin plus steroid injection. Give him some anti hypertensive just in case. In the evening you cant buy any drug. There is a hole stackof injections filled with a red liquid, 100 to 200 of them, supposedly multivitamin plus steroid. Ther is a long queue of 'patients' waiting to get the miracle shot from the 'best doctors' in the town.
This is the shape of affairs in the country I live in. God help us all!
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