Adherence to a generic medicine policy: A developing country's experience

Abstract

Escalating pharmaceutical expenditure is a global phenomenon, and Ghana has not been spared. To attend to the increasing cost of healthcare resulting from the high cost of drugs, the government of Ghana took a strategic decision to reduce its expenditure on healthcare without compromising the quality of care. The government directed that all medicines be prescribed by their generic names only at all health facilities. The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which physicians adhere to the policy by assessing physicians' generic medicine prescribing patterns across the healthcare system in selected facilities in the Greater Accra Region. Questionnaires were administered to 87 physicians in 13 selected health facilities in Ghana. The results were analyzed using SPSS. The study's findings revealed that 74.7% of physicians adhere to the policy, and there is a likely relationship between knowledge of the policy and its implementation. Also, there is no significant relationship between health facility, physician's experience, disease diagnosis stage, and the prescribing of generic medicines. There is a need for regular review of the policy with aggressive and wellstructured in-service training on the subject and the introduction of pharmacists' substitution rights.