Cancer patients from Punjab, who are undergoing treatment at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, are in a Catch-22 situation, because price of life saving cancer drugs supplied by the institute in lieu of private grants provided by Punjab Government is higher than that of drugs available in other pharmacies.
The Punjab Government dispenses an allotted fund for each cancer patient, to PGI. Even medicines are covered under this fund, which is supplied by a dispensary, specially designed for this purpose.
However, the price of drugs supplied to the patients through this dispensary is just double the rate of the same drugs available from pharmacies in the PGI.
Earlier, there was an option of reimbursement, where the patient party was paid the amount for the medicine bought from other medical store, from the State Governments’ grant after the submission of appropriate bills.
The reimbursement system was removed when it was found that people are appropriating the grant money by producing fake medical cash memos.
While investigating the matter this reporter found that, a medicine used by cancer patients, veenat-400 has a maximum retail price of Rs2,665 for a strip of ten tablets and after discount the PGI dispensary, run under the private grant scheme, provides the medicine for Rs1,900, but the same medicine is available for Rs800-Rs1,000 in any other pharmacy in the PGI. The results clearly show that the drug is being availed to the patients at a much higher price by the PGI dispensary. This reporter also collected two cash memos, one each of the PGI dispensary and that of a medical store in PGI, dealing in the medicine as a proof. A sum of around Rs1.5 lakhs is given by the State Government to cancer patients for treatment. Under these circumstances, there are many poor families for whom grants are of great importance and with medicine priced higher than the market; PGI dispensary is only assuring the quick depletion of the private grant funds, pushing the patient party in a difficult position. However, a staff working at the PGI dispensary said that the medicine is made available at the cheapest price from the dispensary.
At the same time the bill of the dispensary clearly states that the medicines available here are provided at the lowest rates and the discounts provided are the maximum as compared to any other medical store, but the bills available with the Pioneer proves all this tall claims to be false.
Manju Wadwalkar, official spokesperson of the PGI said, “The PGI signs a contract with the medicine companies, where the price and the discount rates are fixed and in most cases the discount provided to an institute is lesser than that of the retail market. Under this contract there is a chance that certain medicines might be costlier than the market and others available at a cheaper rate. Nothing can be done till the contract is renewed.”
In this bickering among the institute and its contractor and a visible policy paralyses, it is the cancer patients who are at the receiving end.