Thiruvananthapuram: The Medical College (MCH) and SAT Hospitals here are reeling under a severe shortage of life-saving IV fluids following a production crisis at the manufacturing unit run by Kerala Health Research and Welfare Society (KHRWS) on the MCH campus.

Both hospitals are heavily dependent on the unit for its daily requirement of life-saving intravenous fluids.

The shortfall in supply by KHRWS has now forced both the hospitals to make local purchase of IV fluids from private drug suppliers at three times the rate at which they were getting the supplies earlier.

"The shortage of IV fluids is now acute and we are forced to make local purchase worth Rs.30,000 daily at market rates. We need about 5,000 bags of various IV fluids daily. Our annual expense on this count alone comes to Rs.50 lakhs," says Superintendent of SAT hospital K. Rajmohan.

The IV fluid manufacturing unit of KHRWS here is the only such unit in the Government sector in the State. The unit, which used to manufacture and supply about 12 life-saving drugs to both SAT and Medical College hospitals, is currently able to supply only one product, that too not on a regular basis.

The raw materials for manufacturing the IV fluids, including dextrose, purified sodium chloride and the PVC bags for packaging have to come from Ahmedabad or Mumbai. Production problems arose at the unit here following disruptions in raw material supplies.

The MCH alone requires about 2,500 bags of sodium chloride injections and the SAT, about 1,000 bags on a daily basis. IV fluids, which cost about Rs.35 per bag in the market, are being supplied at Rs.11per bag by KHRWS. The intra-peritoneal dialysis fluid, the market price of which is about Rs.80/bag, is being supplied by the society at Rs.18.50.

KHRWS managing director K.P. Krishnakumar, when contacted, said that there was a `slight shortfall' in production due to the shortage of raw materials. "We are supplying only a small fraction of the IV fluids requirement of MCH and SAT Hospital and the rest has always been met through local purchase," he claimed.

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