Prescription audit

Providing the right medicine to the right people at the right time is a central priority of health care. The way to ensure this is through the effective implementation of the WHO’s recommendation on rational drug policies. In India, drugs worth 7000 crores ($2000 million) are consumed every year. It is acknowledged that substantial part of these drugs is either irrationally prescribed or available in irrational combinations. The Voluntary Health Association of India reports that of the 60,000 formulation on the market, 68 percent are classified as obsolete. Of these 30 percent are useless and 70 percent actually harmful. In light of these findings standard policy on use of drugs must be set, and this can be done only after the current prescription practices have been audited.  The word 'audit' means any exercise that tends to look at input versus output and at the infrastructure that governs both.

Prescription auditing may minimize overuse and misuse of drugs, plan essential drug selection and estimate the drug need of the community. The said data are of great value to health administrators, policy planners, manufacturers, distributors, health professionals and various consumer groups for their decision making.