The State Government’s highly ambitious scheme to provide free medicine to patients has turned a farce in the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) here.
According to official sources, the State Government has launched a drive to make medicines accessible to each patient coming to the Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) or to various wards in the Government-run hospitals.
Several patients who have visited the DHH here allege that doctors have been prescribing medicines that are only available in chemist shops outside the hospital. Most of the medicines prescribed by doctors are not available in the DHH medicine store.
Some patients alleged doctors are prescribing medicines that not available in the DHH medicine store in order to get benefits from the medicine companies through medicine representatives.
As per guidelines, the DHH authority has to write the names of the medicines and its quantity available in the store on the display board every day so that the doctors can prescribe medicines accordingly. Ironically, it has not been done in true letter and spirit. Furthermore, the display boards in many wards in the DHH premises here get updated once a month. When contacted, CDMO Jnanindra Kumar Tripathy said he has received some allegations in this regard. But due to staff shortage such inconsistency is continuing. He said he has directed the Hospital Manager and the ADMO to ensure that the display boards get updated on a regular basis.
Doctors have been asked to prescribe medicines to the patients that are available in the medical store for free distribution, Tripathy said.