Keralam Govt Hospitals Facing Acute Medicine Shortage: Pinarayi Vijayan
Vijayan said the shortage was affecting primary and family health centres as well as district hospitals, and had also affected palliative care services
Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday alleged that government hospitals in Keralam were facing an acute medicine shortage and accused the UDF government of weakening public healthcare to benefit private hospitals.
In a Facebook post, Vijayan claimed that essential medicines such as paracetamol, IV fluids and anti-rabies drugs were unavailable in government hospitals.
He alleged that stocks of 209 medicines and medical equipment for the current financial year had not yet reached hospitals, with antibiotics, cardiac medicines, drugs for acidity and doxycycline used to prevent leptospirosis among those in short supply.
Medicines for fever, pain, infections, diabetes and hypertension, besides injections, were also in short supply, he alleged.
Vijayan said the shortage was affecting primary and family health centres as well as district hospitals, and had also affected palliative care services.
He attributed the shortage to frequent changes at the top of the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL), which handles medicine procurement, delays in re-tendering and the failure to issue purchase orders for medicines and equipment on time.
The former CM alleged that the UDF government was "deliberately" delaying medicine procurement to create opportunities for private hospitals to make excessive profits.
He further alleged, without providing details, that the Congress had received crores of rupees in election funding from major private hospital chains and pharmaceutical companies.
The government was trying to push ordinary people towards private hospitals by weakening the public healthcare system built by successive Left governments, Vijayan alleged.
The Marxist veteran called for public protests against what he termed the government's "negligence and mismanagement" and its alleged denial of treatment to the poor.