Medicine stock to last till July, don’t panic buy, says Pune District Chemists Association

Residents queue up outside retail medical shops as suppliers in containment zone shut shop early

Pune residents are queuing up outside retail medical shops to buy essential medicines, however, some of them have to come back empty handed as the medicines they need are unavailable.

Medical shops located at Sadashiv peth were seen shut on Sunday. Shops are shut at 2pm as they are in the containment zone. (HT/PHOTO)

There is no shortage in medicine stock, according to the Pune District Chemists Association president Rohit Karpe. “There is no problem with the stock of medicines and we have enough supply to last until July. All the five wholesale zones of Pune city, PCMC, Shirur, Junnar Ambegaon Khed (JAK) , and Baramati, have enough for smooth transactions for the next three months,” assured Karpe, who supplies to almost 4,000 medical retailers in the city.

However, there are many customers who are finding it difficult to get medicines, like Ramesh Iyer, a resident from Kothrud. “I go the medical every alternate day to buy injections and medicines for my mother, however, for the past few days they are not available. Due to the area containment of Sadashiv peth, that houses wholesale medicine stockists, it is delaying the process of getting medicines.”

“Following the curfew and containment of the peth areas, the stockists in ‘Dawa Bazaar’ area in Sadashiv peth are closing their shops early. Before the containment, all the stockists would keep their shops open from 10am to 7:30pm, now, the medical store owners inform us that now the stockists shut shop early,” said Iyer.

Karpe adds, “It was the decision of the association to curtail the time of the shops to 2pm. Before, there would be a lot of crowd to buy medicines and social distancing was not followed, hence, we decided to keep the shops open only till 2pm, whereupon we also made a rule that on the first day, we will collect all the lists of the retailers and then they have to come the next day to collect or get it delivered to ease off the crowd.”

Ajit Dole, owner of a medical store on East Street, said, “The stockists have decided to shut the shops by 2pm, but that gives us less time to get the necessary supply of medicines. Earlier, stockists would come to check the stock, now we have to go, and due paucity of time, all medicines are not available , which is creating panic among senior citizens who are maximum of our customers.”

Pratibha More, a resident of Sinhgad road, said, “My child is just a year old and we need medicines for him and I, but whenever my husband goes to the medical shop, they say they have to place an order. Before it was available easily and I didn’t have to wait for two days to get them. Now, we have ordered supply to last us two weeks.”