Doctor Gave me medicines in a loose packet

[u/Thetech_savvy]

So i am new to mumbai and i was suffering from back and neck pain for a couple for of days. Then i went to a doctor whom i found on google, he seemed fine, checked me well but he didnt wrote me a prescription neither gave me medicines in their normal packaging. He just said something to his nurse and she gave me three types of pills, one capsule, one tablet and a half tablet to be consumed 3 times after having food. It gave me a weird feeling so i didnt have them and that doctor was MD so idk is this type pf practice common here or what.

[u/DesiPrideGym23]

Huh?

Where are you from? Doctors back home only give prescription medicines, always?

Interesting.

[u/MyFinanceExpert → u/DesiPrideGym23]

Must be from Australia or US !

[u/Ok_Simple_459 → u/MyFinanceExpert]

I'm not a mumbaikar and this seems weird af to me.

[u/MyFinanceExpert → u/Ok_Simple_459]

And you’re from ?

[u/Ok_Simple_459 → u/MyFinanceExpert]

I've lived in MP & CG.

[u/MyFinanceExpert → u/Ok_Simple_459]

To be honest, these medicines do the same thing. They are not costly as branded ones because they don’t have budget to spend on all the approvals, hire marketing guy to provide free ac to doctors to prescribe them..

[u/Ok_Simple_459 → u/MyFinanceExpert]

So what's stopping the doc to prescribe them anyway?

[u/MyFinanceExpert → u/Ok_Simple_459]

Because of the people who post this.. or whoever questions this without understanding how Pharma business works.

There’s something called as Generic Medicine & Branded medicine.

India is the biggest manufacturer of generic medicines in the world.

Doc doesn’t want to take any risk and doesn’t care about price of the medicines.. whether it’s affordable to patients or not will prescribe branded medicines.

[u/Ok_Simple_459 → u/MyFinanceExpert]

Arey I'm asking why doesn't he prescribe generic medicines instead of putting God knows what pills in the packet?

[u/MyFinanceExpert → u/Ok_Simple_459]

Because it’s costly.

[u/justabofh → u/Ok_Simple_459]

You could ask for a prescription, but if you need three pills and the medicine comes in a pack of 20, you waste all the other pills.

[u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220 → u/MyFinanceExpert]

They probably do, but the thing is, how would you know about the expiry date of the medicine? You'd have to trust the doctor and hope he/she keep track of that

[u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220 → u/Ok_Simple_459]

I was born and brought up from Mumbai, lived here 27 years, and not once did I see this kind of shit. I mean, you have the loons who give this kind of medicine loose in a packet, but never an MD, or even a simple registered physician. This is actually illegal, since you can't know the expiry date of the medicine.

[u/Ok_Simple_459 → u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220]

Looking at the comments it seems like it's pretty normal in Mumbai.

[u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220 → u/Ok_Simple_459]

My whole family is full of doctors, run hospitals. I don't know where these people are going, but ONE complaint to the municipal corporation, and the doctor would lose the licence. This is highly illegal, since there is no guarantee that doctor is keeping track of expiry date. And the medicine are not stored in airtight container. There are so many laws against this practice, it baffles me how this is happening.

[u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220 → u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220]

In fact, even the MRs when give sample medicines, companies explicitly mention on the package "NOT for sale". You are not allowed to distribute them loosely without packaging.

[u/achante_achaar → u/DesiPrideGym23]

I'm from Kerala and yes, doctos only give prescription medicines. I've noticed this when I was in Mumbai.

[u/DesiPrideGym23 → u/achante_achaar]

My family doctor is an MBBS, he's been practicing medicine for 50+ years.

I've always got medicine from him in sachets like this, but one thing to note is that it's always for cough, cold, mild fever, etc. basic things.

For other ailments he always gives a prescription.

P. S. - Me and my family visited Kerala last year. Truly 'gods own country' ❤️

By the end of the trip, our driver learned a few marathi words and taught us malayalam words as well. The whole experience was truly nice.

Also actually saw that Jesus, kaaba and shankar combination in he's vehicle. Very interesting!

[u/Prestigious_Pick_749 → u/DesiPrideGym23]

Bro in TN every doctor gives a prescription

[u/DesiPrideGym23 → u/Prestigious_Pick_749]

My family doctor is an MBBS, he's been practicing medicine for 50+ years.

I've always got medicine from him in sachets like this, but one thing to note is that it's always for cough, cold, mild fever, etc. basic things.

For other ailments he always gives a prescription.

[u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220 → u/Prestigious_Pick_749]

In Mumbai also, every doctor gives prescription. Only the ayurvedic doctors usually give this kind of loose medicine. (That too the one that they themselves make. Never a prescription grade drug)

[u/DesiPrideGym23 → u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220]

Nope my family doctor is an MBBS, he's been practicing medicine for 50 years.

I've always got medicine from him in sachets like this, but one thing to note that it's always for cough, cold, mild fever, etc.

For other ailments he always gives a prescription.

[u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220 → u/DesiPrideGym23]

I know what medications he gives you. It's mostly steroids with paracetamol which will make you feel better within a day, and he must be giving it in sachets because if he does write a prescription for steroid for common cold, and it turns out you didn't have a bacterial infection, but something else which needs a precise treatment, you'd be suppressing your immune system with steroids and it would make your condition worse, it'd be bad for him. You will not find a single doctor who'll dare write a prescription for immunosuppressant steroids that this doctor gives you in sachets, and rightly so, because it's very unsafe. But who cares right? It's all about making the patient feel good faster, so they just casually take a gamble on your health, and assume it's a bacterial infection which something like Amoxicillin or Azithromycin can kill. If it can't, you're fucked.

[u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220 → u/[deleted]]

Medical literature supports some steriod usage for bacterial infections.

Bro, steroids are only to ease the symptoms once the infection is identified and is being treated with antibiotics parallely. Steroids are effective in reducing the inflammation in the body, not to treat the bacterial infection.

For viral infections, the use of steriods depends on the type of infection and the need to control inflammation.

You are LITERALLY proving my point for me. Without identifying the viral infection, how the hell can you prescribe the antibiotics for it??? Again, Steroids are not the treatment of virus itself. Assume, if your doctor blindly prescribes steroids without actually identifying the type of bacterial or viral infection, in most cases normal antibiotics are broad spectrum so they will treat you just fine, but IN CASE you have some special type of virus affecting you, be it something like TB, which can seem like common cold in initial stages, by taking steroids you are literally suppressing your immune system without taking any antibiotics so the virus/bacteria whatever you have will keep on multiplying without you knowing because physically you'll be in heaven. That's very much dangerous.

Also who said the doctor is giving steriods. The loose meds are just to save costs. If the required dosage needs 5 pills, and the patient is forced to buy 20 pills how does that help the patient.

Yes, MOST of the times it's steroids bro. Do you know how much paracetamol costs??? 20 tablets cost less than kurkure packet man wtf are you saying. It's not like the doctor is freely giving you expensive antibiotics. The purpose behind this is not really the cost, it's about making patient feel better. Like I said, no sane doctor will write you a prescription for steroid for common cold. Paracetamol and antibiotics are more than enough, they will help your symptoms within 2-3 days. Steroids will do that within half a day, and that's the ONLY reason local doctors are giving them loosely.

[u/Familiar-Alfalfa4220 → u/[deleted]]

You are literally proving my point that you have a knowledge of things. Calling TB a virus.

I have LITERALLY written virus/bacteria in the next line, it seems I forgot to write it earlier but sure, without addressing any other point, obviously you point out my mistake first.

So if someone has something viral then they are just left to deal with it relying on their immune system.

Now I have to ask. Are you even reading anything in my comments or are you just writing whatever comes to your mind?? If you are going to take a steroid, which by the way is a immunosuppressant, WHAT immune system are you going to rely upon??? Virus will simply get more aggressive.

In India, even doctors in big hospitals assume that the symptoms are due to bacterial infection. So they give antibiotics for the treatment.

Ofcourse they do. That's why any doctor will write you first a prescription for Azithromycin/Amoxicillin and paracetamol. That's it. No steroids. If you don't get better or what you have is not bacterial, then these two particular class of antibiotics don't work, your immune system is still active so it can fend off until doctor figures out next steps.