The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Patients rush to corporate hospital pharmacies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 05, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Patients rush to corporate hospital pharmacies

By V.N. Harinath

HYDERABAD, APRIL 4. Beleaguered patients severely affected by the indefinite bandh by chemists and druggists since April 1 on Monday made a beeline to pharmacies attached to corporate hospitals besides the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) for purchasing their lifesavers. Among the corporate hospitals that have attached pharmacies are Apollo, Care, Kamineni, Mediciti, Medwin and Yashoda.

Although the bandh was initially limited to April 1 and 2, its indefinite extension caused untold hardship to patients, particularly those afflicted with diabetes, hypertension and heart and psychiatric ailments. They had nowhere else to go for their daily dose of medicines.

There were long queues of people waiting to purchase medicines at the OP pharmacies as they had not anticipated the extension of the bandh.

Stocks running out

Spokesmen of some of the corporate hospitals told The Hindu that they had stored adequate stocks of essential drugs in anticipation of people thronging the pharmacies.

However, some like Apollo, said there was shortage of medicines as the existing stocks were running out. Suppliers were not providing adequate stocks. As a consequence the hospitals were taking care of the inpatients and trying their best to meet the demands of outpatients, a spokesman of the pharmacy wing said.

Some of the hospitals like the Care at Secunderabad introduced token system to maintain order as the pharmacy coped with the rush of purchasers, most of them their own patients. Yet, they had to wait for over two hours to get the daily quota. Several of them were either given less than their requirement or turned away due to non-availability of essential medicines.

Special sale

The Andhra Pradesh Chemists and Druggists'Association which is spearheading the bandh in response to the call given by the all-India organisation also arranged sale of medicines to `genuinely' needy people, who could contact the office on telephone 23232348 or 55764037.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh