Contract with Tamu Pharmacy, which previously operated the hospital pharmacy, had expired in the second week of July. The hospital had then signed contract with another private pharmacy. But the contract could come into effect following Supreme Court's directive to government hospitals for operating their own pharmacy.In a hearing to a writ petition filed by the Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights, Supreme Court had issued an interim order on June 28 and a final order on July 14 in the name of all government hospitals to run their own pharmacies. Following the directive private pharmacies within hospital premises were closed from July 17. For distributing the 70 free medicines availed by the government, the hospital has a small pharmacy within the hospital premise that is manned by three hospital staff members.
Thousands of patients and their kin have been forced to bear the inconvenience of visiting pharmacy shops outside the hospital premises to buy medicines. "It was easy to get medicine even in the wee hours when there was a pharmacy inside the hospital," said Dinanath Chapagain, a kin of an indoor patient at the hospital. "Now we are forced to go out for purchasing medicines that are way more costly than the prices we used to pay to the hospital's pharmacy earlier," he added while expressing the inconvenience he had been forced to go through.
Kin of patients are usually forced to visit the town as even pharmacies near the hospitals don't sell all the medicines. "As the shop inside the hospital was closed, I had to buy medications from a pharmacy outside the hospital premises. But since that pharmacy also stopped selling that medicine, I was forced to come here" said a Raju Poudel, who was found buying the medicines from a shop at Mahendrapool. "My grandmother was in immediate need of this medicine, but here I am, still running around looking for it," he lamented.
Due to the lack of immediate availability of medicine, many emergency procedures have been facing difficulties. "There are times when a critically ill patient requires medicines immediately. In lack of it, the patient's life is at a huge risk" he added stressing the need to operate the pharmacy as soon as possible.
The hospital management has acknowledged the inconvenience it has caused patients because of the lack of pharmacies which previously would sell more than 700 medicines.
As part of the contract, private pharmacies selected to run pharmacy within the hospital premises, sell medicines at relatively cheaper prices and pay a monthly rent of Rs 1.4 million to the hospital. This year the hospital management had increased the monthly rent to Rs 2.5 million in its contract with the new pharmacy operator.
Responding to the woes and complaints of the patient and their kin, medical superintendent of the hospital Dr. Shri Krishna Shrestha said, "Preparations are underway for operating the hospital's own pharmacy. It will obviously take some time for the hospital to start running it." He said that they are recruiting human resources for operating the pharmacy, and working on process to buy medicines, among others. Dr. Shrestha said that the hospital will need around 15 staffs to run a big pharmacy like the one hospital needs. He informed that provisions for essential medications like anesthesia required for surgeries had already been made.
The Public Procurement Act states that any organization purchasing goods worth more than 300,000 should do so through tender bids. But the hospital lacks expertise on pharmacy procurement and this has been hindering them from opening bids. "Since we lack experience in running a pharmacy, we are having troubles estimating the amount of medicines required for the hospital. We can't call for tender bids without estimating the budget." The 350-bed hospital had catered to more than 400,000 patients during the last fiscal year.
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