The strike of the Uttarakhand Diploma Pharmacists' Association in support of their 21 pending demands caused major inconvenience to the patients and their relatives. Generally, patients from remote areas of the State come to the State capital for medical treatment.
The indefinite strike of the pharmacists halted the distribution of medicines in all the Government hospitals of the State, resulting in problematic situation for the patients.
Abida Begum, a patient from Haridwar, who visited Doon Hospital for the treatment of severe chest pain complained that she can't afford the medicines available at considerably high prices at the local chemist's shops here.
Echoing similar sentiments, another patient, Gajendra Singh Koranga of Dharampur area, said that the strike of pharmacists created major problems for those in need. He added that people belonging to the BPl category are the main sufferers as they can't afford to pay for the costly medicines. An alternative option should be there for the patients, he said.
Contrary to this, the strike proved to be beneficial one for the local chemists here. A local chemist Rashi Juneja of Maa Santoshi Chemist at Tehsil Road said that the flow of patients to the shop had increased due to the strike of pharmacists.
Another chemist, Bhanu Makkas of Relax Medical store said that the BPl category patients have also started to visiting his shop.Hoping that strike will end soon, the patients purchased only one or two doses of medicine from the chemist shops due to their high cost.
Meanwhile, Chief Medical Superintendent of Doon Hospital, Dr RS Aswal said that the emergency services were kept open for the patients. He further said, "We are also providing medicines to the patients who are coming with their BPl card under lP (local Purchase)."
Archana Srivastava, Chief Medical Superintendent of Doon Women Hospital, said that medicines are available at the chemist shop located on the hospital campus and the medicines are available at quite reasonable prices as no taxes are charged on these medicines. She informed that they also have signed an MoU with Chandan Diagnostic, which is providing all medical assistance to the emergency patients. She also said that mainly the OPD services were affected due to strike of the pharmacists.
President of the Diploma Pharmacists Association, DP Thapliyal, said that, the State government was mainly responsible for this problem which would be resolved only after they receive a proper assurance from the Government. A total of 1,500 pharmacists had boycotted work in Dehradun district alone as part of the strike.