Sambalpur, Oct. 22: The district headquarters hospital here has introduced a central registration system that will provide better health service to patients at cheaper rates.

According to the new system, the hospital authority will keep a copy of the prescription given to the patients. Besides, the doctors at the hospital have also been asked to prescribe generic medicine and medicines that are available free of cost in the hospital.

“If the doctors prescribe generic medicine, the cost of treatment of the patients will reduce as generic medicines are much cheaper than the branded ones. We want patients to get good health service at a reasonable price. The new system has been introduced to ensure that the patients get prescribed generic medicine or medicines, which are free of cost at the hospital. The authorities will monitor the prescriptions to keep a tab on the doctors. This will help the patients a lot,” said hospital manager Sudeep Dutta.

“This is a pro-people measure and patients will benefit from the new system. The hospital has generic medicines,” said Dutta.

“The market price of expensive medicines depends on their brands. But, the generic medicines have the same chemical composition and are available at much lower prices. Doctors have been asked to prescribe the generic medicines. This system does not compromise with the quality of the medicines and the treatment,” said Sujit Panda, district programme manager of the National Health Mission.

The state government-run hospital is an important health centre in the western part of the state. Thousands of patients visit the hospital every day.

Santosh Nayak, a doctor at the hospital, said: “All categories of medicines are now available at the hospital. Patients are getting medicines free of cost from the hospital after introduction of the new registration system.”

The central registration system was introduced at the hospital three months ago. Now, it has started paying dividends.

“This will certainly help the patients,” said Gopinath Pruseth, a resident of the city.