The Director General (DG) of Health services, Dr Kusum Narriyal has claimed that there is no shortage of medicines in the Government health facilities. The DG’s claim assumes significance in wake of Uttarakhand State human Rights Commission asking the Health Directorate to submit a factual report on medicine shortage in the State. Speaking to The Pioneer on Tuesday, the DG said that the directorate has floated necessary tenders for the procurement of drugs. She however accepted that due to delay in process of tenders at the level of districts some shortage of medicines occurred. “We are looking into such cases and are trying to streamline things. The new drug policy was implemented last year and some time is required to settle things during the transition period,’’ she said.
On Monday, taking cognizance of complaint of a Nehru Colony resident Bhupendra Kumar, the Human Rights Commission had asked the DG health to file a reply on the issue. In his complaint, Kumar had alleged that the Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of districts are sitting over the budget of medicines and are not releasing tenders due to which the people of the state are facing severe shortage of medicines in the government health centres. The complainant had cited newspaper reports on medicine shortage to substantiate his charge. The commission has scheduled a hearing on the subject on March 29.
The patients visiting the government health facilities are facing problems due to shortage of medicines. In Doon hospital half of the 103 listed medicines are not available. The hospital is facing shortage of anti rabies vaccine, bandage, glucose bottle and many important medicines. The senior officials of the department are privately blaming the new policy for procurement of drugs which was implemented on July 13 last year. Under the new policy the department has kept a minimum turnover of `20 crore for a state based firm and `70 crore for a national firm which intends to participate in process of tender for supplying medicines in state. The policy also mandates that the selected firm should supply the medicines at a rate which is at least 23 per cent less than the MRP. These pre-conditions appear to have become deterrents for the interested parties to participate in the tender process. A beleaguered state health department had also constituted an inquiry on the issue but its report is yet to be submitted.