Nabarangpur: Basant Rath,
The Niramaya,is
an excellent scheme introduced free drug
distribution scheme of the state government, is of help to the poor and needy
patients languishing with the unavailability of 572 generic drugs listed by the
government. The scheme has taken off in the district on 1 May 2015. But it has
been disappointing as far as patients are concerned. At the district
headquarter hospital (DHH) here, it was proposed that five drugs distributions
centres (DDC) will be established. But till date only three are functional.
While
the list mentions 102 types of medicine that is available at the DDCs only 60
types of tablets and syrups are available for the patients. The counters are
yet to be fully operative. While the health department is allowing private
medical shops called ‘campus medicals’ to operate inside district headquarter
hospitals. They stock no generic medicines but only branded ones, and these are
regularly prescribed by doctors. In the hope of free medicines, patients come
to hospitals with less money than they would have done and are forced to sell
valuables or burrow money ashamedly from undesirable sources. As per law,
Government agencies can be booked for breach of contract and trust, said
Narashinga Tripathy, senior advocate of district bar association. There is no
information placed publicly about the scheme or how patients should be able to
penalise the officials who keep duping people Tripathy added” said
The situation at the 11 community health
centres (CHCs) are still worse as far as the DDC and free medicine scheme is
concerned.
