KARACHI: The hepatitis centres run by Sindh Hepatitis Prevention and Control Program (HPCP) has been facing acute shortage of drugs since two months, putting lives of patients at risk in the province, sources at HPCP told PPI on Thursday.
According to details, the Sindh HPCP, which is an initiative of the chief minister, has been facing acute shortage of drugs from two months due to delay in issuance of tender by authorities concerned of Sindh health department and poor supply system.
About 2,500 to 3,000 new hepatitis B and C patients are being registered across the province every month; they have been put on the waiting list by the doctors due to the shortage of drugs. All new and old registered patients are deprived of medicines since the last couple of months.
The sources said that the new and old registered patients at hepatitis centres of Civil Hospital Karachi, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad and others had been deprived of medicines, causing great hardship to the patients.
The registered patients throughout the province have been visiting the hepatitis centres on a regular basis to get medicines but they were being asked by doctors to buy drugs from private medical stores as the supply has not yet started from the hepatitis programme to the centres as per requirement.
The shortage of medicines in the centres has badly affected programme performance as the treatment of patients is very costly and the majority of the patients could not afford it. The lives of patients suffering from different types of hepatitis diseases are at risk if the shortage of drugs continues in future at these centres.
Sindh HPCP Media Coordinator Khurram Khan, while talking to PPI, said that supply of medicines would be resumed to these centres throughout the province in a week. He informed that delay in issuance of tender caused a partial shortage of medicines in the province and situation would improve in the coming days.
