Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Doctors prescribing medicines available only at select shops or directing patients to particular laboratories has become a common practice in the city. Medical professionals admit that such conduct amounts to commercialisation of a noble profession, though it is not illegal.

The recent Chhindwara tragedy, in which nearly two dozen children died from kidney failure after consuming a contaminated cough syrup, has brought such practices under scrutiny. The syrup, Coldrif, was prescribed by a government paediatrician—now in judicial custody—and allegedly sold from a shop owned by his wife.

A senior paediatrician, requesting anonymity, said that almost every hospital and clinic now has an attached pharmacy, and many private practitioners prescribe medicines stocked o

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