Drugs shortage at Delhi govt hospitals to soon end after health dept clears dues

A health department official said that the government can now provide 600 of the 800 essential drugs needed at the city’s government hospitals

The shortage of emergency and essential pharmaceutical drugs and other medical supplies in Delhi government hospitals will soon end because the health department has paid off all pending dues to their suppliers, officials aware of the matter have said.

GTB Hospital reported a shortage of rabies and thalassemia drugs. (HT Archive)

A health department official said that the government can now provide 600 of the 800 essential drugs needed at the city’s government hospitals, and is working to close the demand/supply gap at hospitals.

“There was a shortage of drugs due to pending dues and other tender issues. However, we have recently cleared all pending dues of suppliers to make sure that hospitals will get their supplies,” said a health department official. “Recently, we were not able to provide even 400 of the 800 essential drugs needed at hospitals. But now, we are going to provide more than 600 of these drugs. We are currently looking into all the demands of hospitals to meet their supply needs based on priority,” he added.

For the past several months, HT had reported that several government hospitals in the city such as GTB Hospital faced a shortage of emergency medicines and essential drugs, such as those for rabies and thalassemia patients. Among the medicines in short supply were those called hydrocortisone injection, tramadol, and desferal.

Officials at several government officials confirmed that they have started receiving the medical supplies they were facing a shortage of till recently.

An official from Deep Chand Hospital told HT on condition of anonymity, “Till last month the hospital faced an acute shortage of medicines. We didn’t even have essential tramadol and propofol injections. However, the situation is changing now,” the official said.

According to reports, the shortage existed because suppliers of pharmaceutical drugs in Delhi said that they had not received payment for medicines worth ₹90 crore from the health department’s Central Procurement Agency (CPA), which is responsible for supplying medicines to state hospitals. The suppliers’ union had written a letter to CPA highlighting the concerns.

“We have looked into those concerns and cleared the dues. As of now, new tenders have also been floated,” the health department official cited above said.