At PGI, patients made to get surgical items from list

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, September 6

Instead of using own stock for surgery at the PGI, patients have to procure surgical items from outside after the treating doctor hands them over a list.

The practice has been going on for long, wherein patients undergoing surgery are asked to procure medicines and surgical items on their own. Once sourced, these are collected by the PGI staff at the time of surgery.

Given as per availability

Patients covered under various scheme are provided inventory from hospital. Those not covered are given consumables as per availability in hospital stores. PGI’s official spokesperson

At times, these cost over Rs 20,000 at medical shops. Although the cost of treatment is low at the PGI, hefty bills of medical equipment and surgical items procured from outside often take a toll on patients.

Most of the times, the medicines and equipment are purchased from private chemist shops as these are not available at Amrit Pharmacies or Jan Aushadhi stores on the PGI premises, where medicines at sold at affordable rates. The list of items range from injections, needles, syringes to tablets.

In the latest case involving administration of anaesthetic at the PGI apparently leading to some deaths, the patients’ attendants had purchased the injection from a private pharmacy in the emergency building of the institute. It is suspected the anaesthetic from a particular batch at the private pharmacy was faulty.

A patient, who recently underwent surgery in the Eye Department, said: “I was given the list of 27 items at the time of surgery. When I handed over the list to Amrit Pharmacy outside the Advanced Eye Centre building, I was told these were not available and I had to fetch these for Rs 17,000 from a private chemist.”

Asked why the institute doesn’t use own stock for surgical procedures, PGI’s official spokesperson said: “The institute is committed to providing quality patient care services, which includes provision of consumables, including surgical. The patients covered under Ayushman Bharat Scheme as well as Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram are provided all the inventory from the hospital itself. Those covered under other welfare schemes such as RAN, PM’s relief fund, Health Minister’s relief fund, Himcare, etc. are given inventory as per the mandate.”

Patients declared poor were also provided consumables available in the hospital and those not available were arranged from the Poor Patient Welfare Fund, said the spokesperson.

Patients not covered under any scheme were provided consumables as per availability in hospital stores. “The items not available are procured by the patients themselves. However, to ease the burden, Amrit Pharmacies and Jan Aushadhi stores have been opened in the institute, which provide affordable medicines and surgical implants,” the spokesperson added.

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