The Bill That Makes You Sick!

“Bahrain’s pharmaceutical regulations are in place for sound reasons. Medicines must be sold in manufacturer-sealed packaging to prevent contamination, ensure quality control, reduce tampering, and maintain proper monitoring of regulated drugs. These safeguards are essential in protecting public health. But good regulation should also consider practical impact.

Have you ever wondered why a doctor prescribes five tablets — but the pharmacy sells you a full box of ten, twenty or even thirty?

It may seem like a small moment at the counter. Yet for many Bahraini residents, it raises serious questions about costs, regulations and waste.

Medical ethics are clear: patients must take medicines exactly as a doctor advises. But in practice, patients are often required to purchase an entire sealed pack, even when only a few tablets are prescribed. The remainder usually ends up in kitchen drawers or medicine cabinets — unused, forgotten or eventually thrown away.

Bahrain’s pharmaceutical regulations are in place for sound reasons. Medicines must be sold in manufacturer-sealed packaging to prevent contamination, ensure quality control, reduce tampering and maintain proper monitoring of regulated drugs. These safeguards are essential in protecting public health.

But good regulation should also consider practical impact.

For families with modest incomes, every dinar matters. If a patient needs only five tablets of a common pain reliever or fever medication, being required to buy a pack of twenty can feel like an unnecessary expense. Multiply that across antibiotics, painkillers and other short-term treatments, and households quietly accumulate strips of unused medicine.

The issue becomes more concerning with antibiotics. When the prescribed course does not match the number of tablets in a commercial pack, extra pills remain at home. Those leftovers can encourage self-medication later without medical supervision — a dangerous practice that contributes to antibiotic resistance and other health risks.

In several countries, including India, pharmacies dispense medicines in exact quantities. Tablets are placed in labelled packets, dosage instructions are clearly written, and since each blister strip carries its expiry date, patients can verify the product’s safety. While that system comes with its own regulatory challenges, it addresses both affordability and waste.

The debate, therefore, is not about weakening Bahrain’s safety standards. It is about modernising packaging.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers could be encouraged to produce smaller pack sizes that align with common prescription durations — five, seven or ten tablets instead of only twenty or thirty. Such an approach would preserve quality control while easing the financial burden on patients.

Healthcare professionals often remind us that stress is one of the greatest contributors to illness. Financial strain only adds to that burden. When patients already worry about their health, they should not also worry about paying for medicine they do not need.

When a prescription says five tablets, the bill should not feel like twenty.

Am I overdosing on my thoughts — or prescribing the right question?