Bandages, cotton, cannula out of stock at Regional Drug Warehouse

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, August 6

The Regional Drug Warehouse, which supplies medicines to Karnal, Panipat and Kurukshetra districts, is facing a severe shortage of essential items, including bandages, cotton, cannulas and syringes, raising concern about the impact on healthcare services in the region. A majority of the items have been out of stock for the past one year, said sources in the Health Department.

Purchase from pvt vendors tedious

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• A majority of the items have been out of stock for the past one year, said sources in the Health Department.
• The non-availability of these items at the warehouse has forced government hospitals to procure them from

  private vendors.

• Sources say the purchase from the local market sometimes gets delayed which further impacts patient care.
• Doctors expressed concern over the situation, citing the increased costs and logistic challenges associated with the purchase from private vendors

The non-availability of these items at the warehouse has forced government hospitals to procure these from private vendors. The sources said the purchase from the local market sometimes got delayed which further impacted treatment. The doctors said sometimes, the local purchase was not sufficient to cater to the needs of the patients, who were coming to government hospitals in rural areas. In some PHCs, CHCs, the non-availability of pharmacy officers affects the purchase of medicines and consumables.

Doctors and staff members expressed concern over the situation, citing the increased costs and logistic challenges associated with the purchase of supplies privately. “We have to purchase bandages, cotton, syringes and other material privately. Sometimes, we have to divert funds from other areas to ensure we have the basic supplies needed for patient care,” said a doctor.

“The warehouse supplies medicines in bulk, while in local purchase we have to buy items as per the budget,” said a doctor in a rural PHC.

As per the sources associated with the Health Department, the frequent transfers of the top officials of the Haryana Medical Services Corporation is a major reason behind the delay in supply as the tenders could not be completed or materialised.

Considering the urgency of the situation, the Haryana Medical Services Corporation Ltd., has floated tenders for the immediate purchase of bandages to fill the stock. The authorities claimed that the supply will address the shortage and ensure that hospitals are adequately equipped to handle medical emergencies and routine surgical procedures.

“We have floated a tender for the purchase of bandages and soon it will be available at the warehouse. The process for the purchase of other medicines has also been initiated,” said Anish Yadav, managing director of Haryana Medical Services Corporation.