Ludhiana Civil Hospital reels under shortage of drugs

Ludhiana: Doctors at Ludiana Civil Hospital are facing challenges in providing treatment to patients because they are unable to recommend specific medications as a result of insufficient drugs in stock caused by financial limitations. 

This comes after the government asked them to only prescribe medicines that are currently in stock at the civil hospital due to limited supply and to avoid the shelves from being empty.

The limitation was imposed following the government's provision of medicines worth Rs 25 lakh according to chief procuring officer Raj Kumar Mittal, despite the facility requesting ₹1.07 crore for medicine procurement. Following this, the hospital is unable to maintain adequate stocks of medicines, impacting doctors' ability to prescribe necessary treatments for patients.

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According to the hospital authorities, they have only 50 drugs in their stock after they received 90 non-essential drugs with government funds. Since the quantity is insufficient to sustain longer, the hospital authorities had to reallocate funds from other areas to cope with the shortfall.

A doctor working at the hospital not wishing to be named told HT, "The restriction was coming in the way of ensuring the proper functioning of the out-patient department (OPD)."

“I have been working here for years, but in the last couple of months, I have found it hard to see patients, knowing that I cannot prescribe the medicine I think they need. We no longer have those drugs.” said the doctor.

Until 26 January, the government hospitals in the state were providing only 278 kinds of essential drugs. A total of 254 essential and non-essential drugs were added to the list, taking the count to 532.

Meanwhile, Civil surgeon Dr Jasbir Singh Aulakh said, "The funds to buy these medicines were to come periodically. This tranche was only for till March 31.”

However, he declined the fact that no such demand for medicine requirement came from the hospital authorities. "I had not received any demand from the hospital regarding the requirement of drugs," he added.

On the other hand, Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh said funds would be given to hospitals again based on their demands and passed the buck to Director of Health Dr Hartinder Kaur.

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