1-In 2005 (1384 Solar Calendar)
pharmaceutical products average usage in Iran was 386 items per each Iranian (monetary value of the total usage: 169.4 Rials not taken into account the direct and indirect subsidies and the share of the pharmacist per prescription(
Haghe Fanni in Persian)).
2-Total items of medicines sold in 2005 amounted to 16.5 billions (
monetary equivalence: 11,526,602,000 Rials).
3-Average item
prescribed per encounter was 3.5 in 2005 (3.6 in 1997).
4-Probable reasons for irrational drug utilization: Lack of systematized structure for
pharmaceutical usage, absence of adequate control over drug
utilization,
unrealistic medical
tariffs, inefficiency of medical insurers, adverse interests of pharmaceutical companies, and high financial benefits of drug distributors.
5-Mr.
Davood Madadi, CEO of the Social Security Organization adds to the above list the
tendency of people to visit doctors prescribing more than standard drug items.
6- Patients generally expect doctors to prescribe parenteral forms of medicines. They don't put believe in physicians who do not satisfy these expectations, a bitter fact of our health system.
7-Dr Mojdehi Azar stresses that low income of physicians in Iran encourage them to follow patients requests instead of concentrating on what the real needs of patients are.
8- Dr.
Hassan Hovida, director of the General Physicians Association in Iran, says that patients are the main inducers of over-prescription of medicines in Iran.
[Extracted from a report by Ali
Akhavan Behbahani]
Source:
Jamejamonline, www.jamejamonline.ir, Feb 21, 2007
Code: 27N
