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Dried up medical supplies hit healthcare at Mata Kaushalya Hospital in Punjab’s Patiala
For last several days, Mata Kaushalya Hospital is facing dearth of medical supplies which the Punjab Health Systems Corporation has failed to provide.
For Patiala resident Daljeet Singh, who got his expecting wife admitted to the Mata Kaushalya Hospital (MKH), buying medicines from the open market, has been adding to his anxiety. “I had to spend around ₹1500 to buy medicines from the shops outside the hospital,” says Daljeet.
Like Daljeet, there are scores of other relatives of patients, who have to run from pillar to post to procure medicines and other medical supplies. For last several days, the MKH is facing dearth of medical supplies which the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC), has failed to provide, said senior health officials in the hospital.
Moreover, the PHSC is yet to release directives regarding the budgetary provision in the absence of user charges, which has put MKH administration in a dilemma. This comes more than three weeks after the PHSC asked all government-run healthcare facilities in the state, to deposit user charges in the state treasury.
Dr Gagandeep Kaur, an x-ray technician in the MKH, said they had asked for 5,00 x-ray films but to no avail. Dr Ashima Jain, lab in-charge in MKH, said there was some relief as the hospital received few reagents and syringes recently.
Another senior official, requesting anonymity, said, “We are not getting dialysis sets. Some items are also out of stock for last seven months.”
A senior official, wishing not to be named, said, “We had asked for around 5000 syringes for a month but we didn’t get 2 ml and 10 ml syringes. We got around 500 syringes of 5 ml. We are not getting intravenous infusion set, surgical sutures, lab reagents, ECG roll, ultrasound rolls, x-ray films, urine bags.” Another official said, “The operating microscope has also developed snags. Earlier, we used to get it repaired on our own but we don’t have any budget and we can’t use money from user charges now.”
Dr Sandeep Kaur, medical superintendent MKH,said, in absence of any earmarked budgetary provision, hospital administration is awaiting government orders.
Pardeep Agarwal, MD, PHSC while responding to questions about the alternative to user charges, said, “The case is under consideration of the government to transfer the amount to hospitals from another account till treasury releases the money to hospitals.” About the dearth of items, he said, “I will ask the procurement wing to examine it.”
