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Medicine shortage at OOAT centres in Punjab leaves patients in the lurch
Sources said Punjab health department has not procured required stock of medicine on time leading to anxiety among drug addicts being treated at OOAT centres. Some centres are also facing the ire of patients
A severe shortage of medicine in the Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics of Punjab has left thousands of patients in a quandary.
Amritsar warehouse, which supplies the medicine to the government-run centres of seven districts of Punjab, has been left with zero stock while private players are ruling the roost. Similarly, two other warehouses in Bathinda and Kharar, which supply medicines to the other districts of Punjab are also facing a severe shortage of supply.
Some of the OOAT centres are facing the ire of the patients due to not having the medicine while many others are left with one or two days of supply. Sources said the health department had not procured the required stock of the medicine on time leading to the anxiety among drug addicts being treated at the OOAT clinics.
“We have left with zero stock in the Amritsar warehouse as the supply is not being received from the state level. Some stock is available in the Kharar warehouse from where we had got 1 lakh medicine on Friday, which was distributed in Amritsar and Tarn Taran. Bathinda warehouse too has run out of stock. The medicine in Kharar will be finished in a day or two,” said Rashpal Singh, chief pharmacist of Amritsar warehouse.
The Amritsar warehouse had written to the state authorities around “a week ago” about the diminishing stock, but no medicine has been received so far. “We often write to the state authorities when only one lakh pills’ stock remains in our warehouse,” said Rashpal.
“We have already placed the order and it will be delivered in the coming days,” said Harsuchetun Kaur, state programme coordinator of the National Mental Health Programme.
A medical officer (MO), who is in-charge of an OOAT clinic, said, “Generally, the department is supposed to keep the medicine stock of six months at the state level, three months at the warehouse, one month at the district level and 15 days at the centres. However, many of the centres are getting only two or three days’ stock. And there is no shortage of medicine at the private centres.” Harsuchetun said she could not share the technical detail regarding the maintenance of the stock without the consent of her senior officers.
The MO said, “We have been directed that not more than two pills should be given to any patient. Some of the patients need a maximum of nine pills at a time. Such patients approach private centres or take drugs. Private centres are allowed to give 100 pills to a patient. There is no shortage of medicine in any private centre. Most of those who are approaching the government centres for the medicine are labourers.”
On Saturday, hundreds of patients protested outside the Gharyala OOAT centre. A video clip of their protest has also gone viral on social media. In the purported video, the patients are seen alleging that since the formation of the new government of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), they were not getting the medicine. They said in the video that they were forced to purchase the medicine from private centres. They also alleged that drugs like heroin can be “purchased from anywhere”. On Friday, some angry patients had also allegedly broken the glass of a window of Gharyala hospital.
Gharyala senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Neetu said, “We have around 700 patients and we somehow managed to get 1,000 pills on Saturday. We have been given assurance that more medicine will be given till Monday evening.”
