Even as the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is planning to open 3,000 Jan Aushadi Kendras (JAK) in the country to provide cheap medicines to the people, the JAK located at premises of the associated hospital of the Doon medical college here is on the verge of closure.
The JAK in the biggest hospital of the State was set up with an objective of the providing cheap generic medicines to the patients. However due to lack of any policy this store is almost out of the stock. “We are left with only 5 percent of the medicine. In absence of medicines we are requesting the patients to purchase medicines from elsewhere,’’ said the pharmacist posted at the store.
In normal times the JAK of the hospital used to draw 80-100 patients per day and had a monthly sale of Rs 2.5 lakh to 3 lakhs. Despite antipathy of the doctors–as they prefer to prescribe branded medicines as the companies offer hefty commissions to them-the JAK draws good number of patients as medicines are available here at 20-30 percent of the market rate.
In absence of medicines, the patients and their relatives are facing problems. Manoj Rawat a resident of Karanpur said, “It is surprising that medicines are not available at the centre. The state government should look in the matter and ensure that this store runs properly.’’
The Medical Superintendent (MS) of the hospital KK Tamta said that according to the new norms the medicines for the centre could be purchased after floating the tenders for it. It is learnt even if the tenders are invited by the hospital; no party would be interested to provide medicine to the store considering the tough and hard to follow guidelines of new medicine purchase policy.
The problem of availability of the medicines in the store famous with the patients started when the Doon hospital was amalgamated into the Government Doon Medical College (GDMC). Being a district hospital, the Doon Hospital was governed by a Hospital Management Committee headed by the District Magistrate (DM).
This committee used to purchase medicines for the JAK by following the process of inviting quotation from the medicine suppliers. When the hospital became part of the GDMC, this committee ceased to exist. It is learnt that the medical college administration was keen to close the store but fearing adverse public reaction, the State Government decided to persist with the store. On April 28 the Government took a policy decision to continue the JAK of the Doon hospital. However due to the lack of proper guidelines the centre is on verge of closure now.