Publication:

Evaluation of prescribing indicators in prescriptions of private practitioners in Kolkata, India

Background To assess the prescribing indicators in prescriptions of private practitioners in Kolkata.

Methods In the observational, retrospective, cross-sectional survey, 1830 prescriptions of private practitioners were collected over a 5 years period and assessed using core prescribing indicators as per the World Health Organization “How to investigate drug use in health facilities” tool.

Results Overall the average number of drug per prescription was 3.05±0.91. No drug was prescribed by generic name. Prescriptions with an antibiotics and injections were 30% (549/1830) and 8.12% (149/1830), respectively. Drugs prescribed from essential drug list (EDL) were 29.38% (1640/5582).

Conclusion Poly-pharmacy, lack of generic prescribing, low rate of prescriptions from EDL is the present prescribing scenario of private set-up based practitioners of Kolkata. Regulation and intervention is required to improve the irrational prescribing practices.