Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The state Health Department has taken certain measures to ensure a smooth supply of essential notified medicines from district hospitals to Ayushman Arogya Mandirs in the state.
Making this announcement today, Health Minister Ashok Singhal said, “Our thrust is to ensure that the public gets 99 per cent of free notified medicines so as to cut the out-of-pocket medicine costs of patients. In 2024-25, the department procured medicines worth Rs 378 crore for free distribution. The amount earmarked for the purpose is Rs 445 crore for the year 2025-26. Since the department has spent such a big amount for free medicines, we want efficient medicine supply chain management in the state.”
The minister said, “We receive complaints like the non-availability of prescribed medicines in hospital pharmacies. One of the reasons behind this is that most of the doctors prescribe branded medicines, not generic ones. It leads to confusion among the pharmacists and patients as well. If anybody doesn’t get prescribed medicines, he or she can send copies of the prescription through the WhatsApp number 9864541430, and the department will take necessary action. We’ve asked doctors to prescribe generic medicines instead of branded ones.”
The minister said, “The state has 4873 Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, 1018 PHCs, 211 CHCs, 17 sub-divisional civil hospitals, and 22 district hospitals.”
According to the guidelines of the Health Department, CHCs, SCHs, and district hospitals should have 261 different types of medicines for patients free of cost, 125 types of medicines in PHCs, and 30 types in Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.
The minister said that the state still has a dearth of MBBS doctors. “We hope the shortage of doctors will be minimal from next year. It will take a few more years to meet the shortage of specialist doctors. Many hospitals don’t have anaesthesiologists. The state produced around 700 MBBS doctors annually five/six years ago. Now, the state produces 1,600 MBBS doctors every year.”
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