Sindh hospitals facing acute medicine shortage

KARACHI: Public sector hospitals of Sindh have been facing an acute shortage of life-saving medicines and disposable surgical instruments since the past six months due to poor planning as well as the lethargy of the Sindh Health Department.

The patients visiting hospitals in the province, including Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Sindh Government Lyari General Hospital, Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad, National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and many others are being asked to purchase medicines from their own pockets as bureaucratic hurdles in the central procurement system for medicines have led to an acute shortage of drugs.

Similarly, health facilities of Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad and other cities are also facing a shortage of medicines. Medicines are not even available for patients who are suffering from chronic diseases like, hepatitis C, TB, and other systemic diseases.

The Sindh Health Department had introduced a centralised system in 2014-15 to purchase life-saving drugs for all the hospitals in order to control corruption and other irregularities in purchasing medicines. Since then, about 85 per cent medicines for all the public hospitals in Sindh are being procured through a centralised system, while 15 per cent are procured locally.

The shortage of medicines has further deepened in health facilities in all over the Sindh province as the supply of life-saving drugs has not started yet despite the passage of two quarters of the fiscal year 2018-19 due to delay in the tender process.  All the major hospitals of Sindh have been facing acute shortage of life-saving drugs and surgical items.

An administrative official at Civil Hospital Karachi told PPI that provision of medicines and surgical instruments to 7,000 OPDs and 1,500 emergency patients on daily basis had become much difficult for administration.   He said crises of drugs and other items are worsening with each passing day.

He added that delay in the issuance of tenders for the central procurement of medicines as well as a rise in the value of the dollar were two major causes of the shortage of medicines as importers of surgical items and imported medical staff were reluctant to provide these supplies on older rates.

Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Executive Director (ED) Dr Seemin Jamali said that a tender for the procurement of medicines and surgical items through the central procurement system should be issued in June or July every year instead of December to avoid such a crisis.

She added that the JMPC was acquiring drugs for needy patients from philanthropists and non-governmental organisations to overcome the situation.

The heads of others major hospitals of Karachi also confirmed that they had been facing a similar shortage as the supply from the health department did not start despite the passage of six months, compelling patients to buy medicines and other health related items from their own pockets.