Dehradun: The Uttarakhand health department has directed doctors to issue prescriptions for generic medicine in triplicate, in line with standard practice in western countries. The state became the first in the country to implement the system.

Under triplicate prescription system, the physician will keep a copy of the prescription with him and the remaining two copies will be given to the patient and pharmacist. Those who wish to prescribe non-generic medicine need to seek permission from a senior doctor and mention the reason behind prescribing them. Also, during audit these prescriptions would be presented to the expert team for scrutiny.

According to officials of the health department, Uttarakhand will be the first state in the country to implement the system. Orders were given for this in Tamil Nadu but never implemented.

The Uttarakhand government, which sent out the order in April, has asked the health department to begin its implementation within a week, officials said.

Officiating director general of health department, Dr DS Rawat, said, "The move will help us keep stock of medicine availability and also, ensure that out-of-pocket expense of patients which is very high (about Rs 3,500 each) will come down substantially."

The direction hasn't gone down well with government doctors of Uttarakhand, who disclosed that out of a list of 589 medicines in the Essential Drug List (EDL), health department procures only 250 to 300, which forces doctors to prescribe non-generic medicines.