The crowd of patients in government hospitals is increasing every year, while the list of essential medicines supplied to them is getting smaller. In such a situation, patients are forced to take medicines from outside. In the conditions of procurement at the local level, the limit is fixed for the purchase of any essential medicine for one year, that much medicine is consumed in one-and-a-half months only.
According to doctors, the number of patients in the city's hospitals increases by at least 10 percent every year. In a hospital like Balrampur, this number is up to 15 percent. Medicines given free to patients are provided by the Drug Corporation to the hospitals. This drug corporation was formed in the year 2018. Before it came into existence, the Rate Contract (RC) of the Health Department used to have about 400 medicines.
After coming into existence, the Drug Corporation prepared the Essential Drug List (EDL) i.e. the list of essential medicines by taking the list of medicines from the Health Department. 286 drugs were placed on this list. Even after this, the Drug Corporation does not supply 40-50 types of medicines to the hospitals out of the medicines included in the EDL. Throughout the year there are reports of drug crises in hospitals and the drug corporation keeps on giving its arguments.
(pc amarujala)
