Hyderabad: Patients at the Government Nizamia Tibbi Hospital Charminar are forced to buy medicines from outside due to shortage of medicines in the hospital. About 600 patients visit the units in the hospital from various districts. The 180-bedded hospital was set up in 1938 by Mir Osman Ali Khan, seventh Nizam of Hyderabad.
Medicines to the hospital are supplied by Government Indian Medicine Pharmacy at Katedan after manufacturing there. “There is no separate budget for medicines. The pharmacy gets a fixed budget and the quota of medicine for the hospital is also fixed,” said Dr Parveen, superintendent of the hospital. She added that the management has asked the doctors not to prescribe any medicines from outside.
The pharmacy also supplies medicines to 122 dispensaries and two hospitals at Hanumakonda and Nizamabad.
Mr Anees Ahmed, a retired government employee and a resident of Shahalibanda who visits the hospital for treatment, said, “The doctors ask us to buy a few medicines from outside as they are not available there.” A senior doctor at the hospital said that there is a huge mismatch between the demand and the supply. "The government has approved 60 medicines but all of them are not supplied. A few new medicines have to be added to the list," he said.
Doctors at the pharmacy said that though there is a shortage of staff at the manufacturing unit.
"In June, Rs 18 lakh worth medicines were supplied to Nizamia Hospital," said Dr Liyaqath Ali Khan, chief superintendent of pharmacy.
Another employee, Dr. Rafeeq, said, "There have been instances when the medicines got wasted. So, we carefully examine the requirement and send accordingly," he said.
