A prescription of order

When word broke earlier this year that physicians and pharmacists have been treated to new prescription forms by order of Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, the matter seemed pale — perhaps even byzantine — when compared with the minister’s flashier preoccupations. Who wants to bother with discussing some bureaucratic, procedural reform when there are so many daring indictments of food villains and patient-rejecting hospitals to drum up, replete with photo ops? Even with the prospect that the new prescription regime might save citizens and the state some pretty pennies on drug expenditures — 30 percent ought to be possible, according to officials (see “Waiting for (re)forms“) — and at the same time stimulate local production of generic pharmaceuticals, almost everyone ignored examining the new measure and its significant, albeit not short term, implications. Everyone except Executive, that is. Even more shocking than the malnourished attention given to pharmaceutical issues that