FREE ANTI-MALARIA INJECTION ‘INEFFECTIVE’
FREE ANTI-MALARIA INJECTION ‘INEFFECTIVE’
Artesunate, one of the free drugs under Niramaya scheme used for malaria treatment, is not available in any of the Government hospitals of Nuapada district.
“The stock is available in the district drug warehouse, but cannot be given as it has tested NSQ,” says the CDMO, Nuapada. Here NSQ stands for “Not of the Standard Quality”, which means, the drug may not create required impact on the patients.
Kapura Chhatria (15) of Kotipadar village under Khariar block was found malaria positive after blood test in a private pathology at Khariar. The quack, who treated her charged Rs 700 for one Artesunate injection. The treatment stopped after one dose, as she was unable to pay more to continue the treatment. Artesunate is one of the 570 free drugs made available to people under Niramaya scheme free of cost in the Government hospitals, but, Kapura says, the Government medicine does not work on her. Looking at the NSQ story as mentioned above, Kapura might be right in her presumption.
More than 500 patients visit the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Khariar town every day for treatment, but all of them do not feel like Kapura. There are many who fall back on the supplies of the Government, but they are forced by the doctors to buy medicines from outside. Sometimes they are told that, the medicines are not available in the hospital and most of the time, they are told that the free drugs do not create the desired impact.
However, Artesunate is highly on demand in all CHCs and other health centres of Nuapada district as the district is malaria prone. But in spite of this, the patients are forced to buy it from market as the drug is not available regularly in the health centres. In the Khariar CHC, Artesunate stock was exhausted three days ago. The CHC has placed the requirement in the CDMO office, but is not sure, when the drug will be made available. On the other hand, the revelation about the delay by the CDMO office that the available stock is NSQ is shocking.
“The Artesunate injection available in the district store will not be distributed because they have been tested NSQ by the State Drug Testing and Research Laboratory,” reveals the CDMO office. It is learnt that the zone office of the Drug Controller has directed the CDMO to return the Artesunate to the company. “We have to wait till the fresh batch is delivered,” says CDMO Dr Jagdish Mahanand. “But in the meanwhile, the CHC will bear the cost of the injection, if needed,” he adds.
“The drug companies appointed to deliver drugs by the Odisha State Medical Corporation Limited (OSMCL) have given NSQ drugs several times even in the past,” alleges BJP leader Sanjay Tiwari. “AS tablets were delivered sometime back in 2016, which did not work in patients, thus the sample was sent for testing and it was found to be NSQ,” says a staff of Khariar CHC not revealing his name.
The OSMCL acts as an independent procurement agency for the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha, for timely procurement of quality medicines through fair, transparent and competitive bidding process. The organization is headed by an IAS officer as Managing Director assisted by seven functional divisions like HR and Administration, Finance, Procurement, Logistics, Equipment and Maintenance, Quality Assurance and IT in the day- to-day management of the corporation. The companies, which are selected through bidding process for supply of drugs under Niramaya Scheme by the OSMCL deliver drugs to the district drug warehouses directly, which are distributed amongst different health centres in the district. It is shocking that, by the time the quality report of the drug from the SDTRL reaches the district, some of the medicines are already distributed to the patients. “In such cases, the medicines do not deliver the desired impact resulting in complications within the patients,” says a doctor. “It is even proved in a survey conducted by the Union Health Ministry two years back that, over 10 per cent of drugs in the Government supply chain were of ‘Not of Standard Quality’ (NSQ),” adds he. He thus justifies his stand for advising the patients to buy drugs from outside.
Comments
Post a Comment