Nagpur: It seems that the practice followed by Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), compelling patients to purchase medicines from pharmacies outside the premises at higher price is not going to end anytime soon. The shortage of drugs is still harrassing the people who bring their relatives in the hope of reasonable cure at the hospital.
Nagpur Today toured the GMC premises and got to the nerve of emergent yet serious situation being faced by kin of patients.
At the medical pharmacy of GMCH, Salma Anis Ansari was found struggling to get the medicine prescribed by doctor.
While narrating her ordeal, Salma told NT, “Out of the 4 medicines advised by doctor, I only managed to get 1, and that is paracetamol.”
Similarly another relative of patient at ICU delved us into his struggle to procure medicines, saying that since past one week, they had not purchased a single drug from GMCH pharmacy.
“My brother’s liver is damaged. The drugs prescribed by doctor are not available at pharmacy. As our patient is in this traumatic condition we could not do anything but to buy expensive drugs from private pharmacies”.
However it is not that the authorities have no time to tackle the crisis in first place but they have chosen to neglect the issue that has reaching at alarming stage now.
It is to be noted that for more than 6 months, drugs have not been purchased by concerned department that resulted into total breakdown of public healthcare in city. Apparently, there is a great deal of delay on the end of state government in purchasing drugs through the Haffkine.
Moreover, no alternate arrangments have been made either to keep the medicinal supply on.
On condition of anonymity, a doctor at GMCH’s ICU told NT that the situation has touched rock bottom now and they have to prescribe everything from outside.
“Today itself, a patient had come with hepatic encephalopathy. Left with no option I asked them to buy Vitamine-k from any of the private pharmacies. Every time a patient is admitted in ICU we have to prescribe most medicines from outside. We do not even have these basic drugs”, he said.
-Shubham Nagdeve
