KARACHI, April 4: The pharmaceutical companies have created a lot of distortions in the market by offering free air tickets and other incentives to doctors and their families, said the federal health minister on Friday.

Speaking to Dawn after the inaugural ceremony of an upgraded Neonatal Unit at the National Institute of Child Health, Nasir Khan said: “This is just another form of corruption and bribery.”

The minister said strict action would be taken against drug companies, preparing substandard medicines. Such companies by providing monitory benefits to physicians compel them to prescribe substandard medicines, which amounts to dishonesty and corruption, he added.

The health minister said his government had taken serious notice of the situation and efforts would be made to check the objectionable practices.

He was of the view that free air tickets resulted in the wrong prescription of certain costly drugs.

In response to a question, he said overuse of injections was a serious matter and a policy would be formulated soon to check the same.

Earlier in his chief guest’s speech at the opening ceremony for the 70-bed Neonatal Unit, Nasir Khan said instead of building new hospitals and health centres, the medical community and authorities should focus their attention on properly equipping and staffing the existing ones.

“This is the time for consolidation and not for new projects.” If during the next one year or so the existing buildings were equipped with proper equipment and staffed with dedicated individuals, a new beginning could be made in the health sector.

Mr Khan said due importance be attached to the training of nurses. “Nurses are the backbone of any healthcare system. That’s why I feel that standards should be very high so far as training of nurses is concerned.”

The minister informed all those present that 85 Pakistani children, out of every 1,000 live births, die due to various reasons, including malnutrition. Most of the children who die breathe their last in the first week.

“That’s why there’s a need to provide good care to all newborns.”

The minister asked the director-general of health to look into the staffing needs of the NICH.

The director of NICH, Prof Zeenat Issani, on the occasion informed the minister that even though the bed strength in her institution had gone up from 75 to 375, the number of doctors, surgeons and nurses was almost the same.

She spoke at length about her nursing programme the first batch of which would pass out soon. The NICH’s director told her guests that the government had spent Rs20 million to upgrade the new and upgraded Neonatal Unit.

Rotary Club of Karachi Sunset Millennium and the Edhi Foundation have donated generously for the upgradation of the unit, which is equipped with state-of-the-art cots and incubators. SADA Welfare Foundation has promised to run the unit.

The director general of health services, Dr Mohammad Aslam, in his speech praised the Karachiites’ philanthropic spirit. “This is a great city. Rich people here try their best to help their poor brothers and sisters.”

Dr Sabiha Khan and Dr Afroze Ramzan also spoke.