Rural health centres of Punjab give drugs without government label

Tribune News Service

Karam Prakash

Patiala, June 15

Rural health centres across the state are distributing medicines to patients that don’t have the mandatory government label on them.

A visit to a rural health centre in Patiala revealed that instead of labelling “Punjab Government supply and not to be sold”, the medicines had MRP (maximum retail price) mentioned on them.

These anomalies may lead to the resale of these medicines at various levels, suspect experts.

It has been learnt these rural health centres come under the Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, which has stopped purchasing the medicines from the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC).

The PHSC is a nodal government agency and both the department — health and medical education — are supposed to purchase the medicines through it.

In 2020, a senior officer had raised the issue and demanded the purchase of medicines through the PHSC, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Dr Aslam Parvez, state president, Rural Medical Services Association, said, “The department should follow the rules to purchase

medicines for the rural health centres.”

He said, “The current mechanism to bypass the PHSC to buy medicines should immediately be stopped. Medicines sans label of ‘not to be sold’ can be resold easily at every level – from patients to top officials.”

He said the association members would observe a black day on July 1 (Doctor’s Day) if the state government fails to fulfil their genuine demand.

Seema Jain, Principal Secretary, Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

When contacted, Kuldeep Dhaliwal, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats, said he would comment on the issue only after enquiring about it from the director.

Can lead to resale

Medicines sans label of ‘not to be sold’ can be resold easily at every level – from patients to top officials. — Dr Aslam Parvez, president, Rural Medical Services Assn

PHSC being ‘bypassed’

These centres come under the Dept of Rural Development and Panchayats, which has stopped purchasing the medicines from the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC), a nodal government agency, against norms.

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