Thiruvananthapuram: The Government Ayurveda Hospital for Women and Children is facing a major predicament.
The hospital is duty-bound to provide preservative-free medicines but these medicines made from pure natural ingredients have such short shelf-life that patients are forced to come every second day to collect medicines from places 20-40 kms away like Kattakada, Palode, Neyyattinkara and Kottoor.
Since it is mostly the economically weak who visit the hospital, frequent travels will be a huge drain on their meagre budgets.
On an average, 120 patients visit the Ayurveda wing of the hospital daily. At least 80 percent of the patients are from the outskirts of the city and mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Patients are given 50 ml of a particular ‘thailam’ (oil) and just the quantity of ‘kashayam’ that will last for two days. Patients can purchase a larger quantity of these medicines from popular ayurveda outlets but it will be very costly.
“They get the medicines free at the hospital. Moreover, the potency of the medicine we provide cannot be matched by branded ayurveda medicines especially because we don’t use preservatives,” a doctor said.
A reasonable solution is to manufacture these medicines in powder form, package them and distribute them among patients. “This will not only keep the purity of the preparation intact but will give patients some relief from constant travel.
The package will hold good for at least a week. Patients themselves can prepare the formulation by simply boiling the powder,” the doctor said.
Such a proposal has been pending with the government for more than a year. Sources in Ayurveda College said that shortage of manpower had caused the proposal to be put on hold.
