Medicine shortage deepens at government hospitals

KARACHI - The shortage of medicines has further deepened in all the major government hospitals of Karachi and provincial health department has failed to purchase drugs for public hospitals under centralized policy.

All the major hospitals of Karachi like; Civil Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and others are facing acute shortage due to poor policy of health department Sindh.

Reliable sources of Civil Hospital Karachi, on condition of anonymity, informed that there was an acute shortage of life-saving medicines at the hospital for the past two months and said; Poor policy on medicine purchase had badly affected the health delivery system across the Sindh province.

They said; Emergency department of hospitals are also facing shortage of medicine like; tetanus injection, diclo injection, surgical, lab instruments and other medicines. The emergency patient’s attendants are left with no other option but to buy medicines from private medical stores.

On the other hand, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) - another major teaching hospital in Karachi, where patients from all over Pakistan come for better treatment facilities, is facing a severe medicine shortage since the last one month.

An official of pharmacy department said delay in issuance of tender to purchase medicine on centralized basis is the major reason behind the shortage of drugs in hospitals. Health department officials have no idea about the patient problems and miseries caused due to shortage of medicine.

Meanwhile, all the major hospitals operating under the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation like; Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and others have also been facing an acute shortage of medicines since last several months due to the financial crises of KMC.

Special Secretary Public Health Sindh - Dr Khalid Sheikh, when contacted, said; Medicines had been purchased on centralized basis and list of purchased drugs is already uploaded on our website. He said supply of medicines has begun in the province and crises would end soon. Some companies approached the courts against each other, which is the main reason behind the delay in supply of medicines to public hospitals.  To end the crises of medicine supply in city government run hospitals, it is the responsibility of KMC as these hospitals do not operate under the health department.