Supply of free medicines to the poor and needy patients under the Niramaya scheme has proved a flop in Baleswar district.
The failure of the scheme is attributed to non-availability of adequate medicines of various types and manpower to cater to the needs.
The scheme while took off in the district on May 1
last, yet the performance has been dismal.
In the district headquarters hospital (DHH) itself while there was a proposal to open five drugs distribution centres (DDC), yet two are currently functional, one at the Outdoor and the other at the Medicine Ward.
It was informed by the DHH that there would be one each counter in the female, surgery wards and medicine wards and two for the outpatients.
While there is a list of 443 types of medicines in the DDC but practically only 40 types are available for the patients. The counters are not operative full– fledged and the medicines are not distributed as per the guidelines. For round-the-clock service of DDC, there is a requirement of at least 16 health workers but the current strength is only eight. Moreover, the staff members engaged in the DDC are not computer savvy.
The authorities in the DHH maintained that there was a stay order in the appointment of health workers. Therefore they were not able to open all the counters. ADMO Dr SS Chaudhary said, “Due to insufficient staff, all the DDCs couldn’t be opened. However, hopefully the things would be in right form by second week of next month.”
As per the scheme, under a `200 crore budget, the State Government had announced to provide 570 types of medicines to all districts. The drugs are to be procured by the district store from the central store through State drugs management unit. The state of DDC in the Nilgiri sub divisional hospital too is pitiable as it is also struggling with similar difficulties, sources said.