Following Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s circular stating that hospitals should not coerce patients to buy medicines from the in-house pharmacy, all the seven joint commissioners from seven zones in the state have been asked to submit compliance reports on the same.

The action comes in the wake of recent complaints from the patient community with reference to the extra cost which patients have to bear when hospitals force patients to buy from hospital pharmacy.

As per the circular, the state regulator has asked all the private hospitals across the state to display it clearly outside their pharmacies that there is no compulsion to buy medicines from the in-house pharmacy and patients are free to get medicines from drug retail stores in their vicinity.

This pressure by hospitals has made patients gullible to avail the medicines on the MRP when the same medicine is offered to the patients at the retail drug store at a discounted price of 30 per cent to 40 per cent based on the choice of brand or medicines required at the point of care.

The state drug regulator has asked the licensing staff to ensure that patients are not held to ransom by the hospitals. The circular comes in the wake of several complaints from Pune and Mumbai where the patients were coerced by the respective hospitals to purchase medicines only from their pharmacies.

The circular sent to the city's private hospitals states that the decision to choose the pharmacy should be left to the patients and their relatives and the hospital should not coerce them in anyway.

The compulsion to buy from the hospital pharmacy is due to the fact that certain drug companies tie up with the private hospitals to push their brands to be sold at the hospital pharmacy at a premium price under the pretext of making it accessible at the point of care.