Doctors not giving patients enough time, says WHO : ‘50% Don’t Receive Advice On Medicines

New Delhi: April 23, 2011

On an average, doctors in developing countries spend less than 60 seconds in prescribing medicines and explaining the regimen to their patients, according to World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Medicines Situation 2011. As a result, only half the patients receive any advice on how to take their medicines and about one third of them don’t know how to take their medicines immediately on leaving the facility. Though around 80% of all prescribed medicines are dispensed — usually, they are done by untrained personnel — and as many as 20-50% of medicines dispensed are not labelled.

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