Supreme Court rejects plea seeking mandate on doctors to specify risks of medicines

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea seeking directions to make it mandatory for medical professionals to specify what risks may be associated with medicines prescribed for their patients.

The Bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan observed that the prayers sought were difficult to implement.

"Pharmacies are all crowded," Justice Viswanathan observed.

"A general practitioner cannot attend more than 10-15 patients if this followed and then (there is the issue of) consumer protection cases ... This is not practical at all. As it is, doctors are unhappy (about) bringing them under the ambit of the Consumer Protection Act," Justice Gavai weighed in.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, tepresenting the petitioner, suggested that printed proformas could be prepared in advance to lay out the side-effects associated with various medicines.

"It is easy for the doctor to have a printed proforma about effects," he said.

"For every patient it is a different medicines," Justice Gavai replied.

"WHO (World Health Organisation) says that the large part of harm to patients is because of the adverse effects of medicines," Bhushan persisted.

The Court, however, declined to entertain the matter.

"The only thing that can be done is a local language indicator in pharmacies that read medicine covers properly," Justice Viswanathan said.

"Sorry. Matter dismissed," Justice Gavai added.