Cancer patients suffer as medicines in short supply

Bathinda, April 17

It has been more than 10 months since the NCD (non-communicable diseases) centre at the Civil Hospital has received regular supply of chemo drugs.

Despite several reminders to the officials of the Health Department, the supply of medicines has remained erratic, as a result of which hundreds of patients have to bear the brunt.

As the unit runs out of combination medicines required to administer chemo therapy, cancer patients are forced to purchase these medicines from private chemist shops at exorbitant prices.

A majority of patients visiting the NCD centre are from rural areas and financially deprived, but as the centre has been facing shortage of chemo drugs for months now, the inflow of patients at the unit has also halved.

The cancer control programme of the State Health Department mandates that chemotherapy medicines must be provided free of cost for treating cancer patients at district hospitals and medical colleges.

But except for a few, a majority of the combination medicines required to administer chemotherapy have not been supplied to the medical oncology unit for more than 10 months now.

On an average, the medical oncology unit of the NCD centre sees 600 patients in a month, but ever since the supply of medicines dropped, the number of patients has come down to 250 to 280 now.

Vandana Midha, medical oncologist at the NCD centre, said, “We have written to the NCD state unit (Chandigarh) on several occasions but each time they have cited shortage of funds for not being able to supply medicines. It is really difficult for poor cancer patients to purchase medicines who have already availed of Rs 1.5 lakh under the Mukh Mantri Punjab Cancer Raahat Kosh and have to resume their treatment from a government hospital now.”

Civil Surgeon Hari Narayan Singh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. — TNS