Hyderabad: There’s a shortage of medicines in the anaesthesia department and second line of antibiotics are not available in the orthopaedic and infections departments in Osmania General Hospital and Gandhi Hospital.
There is a shortage of epinephrine or adrenaline and atropine, which are used in emergency treatment and second line of antibiotics like Meropenem, Impenem and Amphotericin, which are used in post-operative care and infections.
Every year, the two main teaching hospitals procure medicines worth Rs 1 crore each. A senior doctor on condition of anonymity said, “The medicines are procured every three months and the shortage is often felt after the first 45 days. This is because either they are used excessively or there is no proper mechanism of procurement of drugs.”
Patients are having to fill the prescriptions for these medicine from outside.
Mr Rafique Sheikh, a patient who required medicines for treating an infection, said, “Although I was being treated in the hospital, due to shortage they could not give these essential medicines. I had to borrow '20,000 to pay for the medication.”
There are many who are treated only with drugs that are available. Ms Laxmi Rao, who suffered from an allergic infection, said, “There were a few medicines in Gandhi Hospital and the doctor gave me basic medicines due to which my infection spread and I had to opt for private treatment.”
The Telangana Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation recently held a review at the Gandhi and Osmania General hospitals.
A senior drug officer with the corporation said, “We find that hospitals are not studying their actual requirement. The process of procurement is very random. They are ordering too many basic medicines and the stock either gets spoiled or there is theft. The indent and the mechanism of storing have to be improved to deal with this shortage.”
