He too has had panicked customers coming around and looking to stock up for six months or more. He has been busy trying to convince one thing to all of them; the medicine supplies for the moment are sufficient.
"It's the truth over here at our pharmacy and I bet many around town too. If anything hysteria about the shortage has been causing our stocks to run low. Customers who have been denied their medicines in bulk simply go over to the other counter and get their share. In reality there is no need to panic. Not for the time being anyway," insists Shrestha.
Shrestha admits the blockade has affected the supply of medicines but the distributors have been able to meet their demands. Apparently ever since the blockade, distributors have been in constant communication with the hospitals as well as different pharmacy outlets. Though importing medicine has become tenfold more expensive and tricky, they have been finding their way through airlifts or different routes. Even in cases where certain company's medicines are not available, alternatives have been made accessible in the market.
For instance, supplier of life saving medicines and vaccines, Yetichem Distributor's Managing Director Prithivi Raj Vaidya explains that the route from Biratnagar may be blocked but their supplies have been passing through Sunauli.
"The blockade has created challenges. Just a while ago I emailed the necessary documents to bring the medicines that have been stuck at our store in Raxual. A company that is trying to bring their medicine supplies also just called and informed me that it's too risky to pass by the Biratnagar border so he too will try his luck at the Sunauli checkpoint. Regardless, it's not like we have run out of stock. We have been able to maintain supplies to the hospitals and pharmacies," says Vaidya.
Further, according to him, many medicines always used to be transported in controlled temperatures through the airways. On accounts where there has been difficulty on road, many companies too are opting airways as means of supply. The likes of Thai airlines, Cathay Pacific and Dragon Air have been cooperating on those fronts with Yetichem. This naturally is doubling up the costs for the supplying companies but Vaidya assures us that they have not added any extra price on the sales.
Prof. Dr Prem Khadga, head of department of Gastroenterology at T.U. Teaching Hospital too confirms that where the medicines are concerned there isn't a crisis yet. Though the faculty is being extra vigilant about their stock, their distributers have been able to keep up the supplies. So currently rather than life saving drugs what is making them incredibly anxious is the shortage of minor day to day supplies.
"Our distributors are out of cotton rolls, gauges, syringes right now. We have been forced to make do with the stocks that we had procured from several donations especially after the earthquake. The suppliers we have tenures with state that they haven't got any stocks to provide us these necessary things," reports Dr Khadga.
And this is where the urgency of the headlines rings true. President of the Chemical and Medical Suppliers Association of Nepal, Bhakta Hamal, claims that all the companies who are involved in distributing surgical day to day supplies have been hit incredibly hard. The medicine distributors have been somehow able to make do with the demands largely via airlifts but because their surgical equipments are not as compact and tends to be large in volume, this is not an option for them. As a result Hamal says there are more than 200 trucks stuck at the borders with rolls of cotton, bandages, gauges, syringes and similar day to day necessities that the hospitals are quickly running out of at the moment.
Sanjay Jain, Director of Everest Med Pvt. Ltd, finds the situation very frustrating. For 12 years his company has been manufacturing syringes under the market name of Lifeline. They used to supply disposable synergies across Nepal. But of late, his factory that used to run 24 hours is open for only a couple of hours a day. There is no work to be done because there are no supplies.
"We were able to distribute our supplies even after the blockade. But we finished our stock by late October, early November and after that everything has been going downhill. We have all our containers stuck at the borders. Some have been there since mid September. We have appealed to every concerned Ministry officers but there haven't been any results," says Jain.
Nepal Chemists and Druggists Association, the organization of business firms involved in pharmaceutical retailing as well as wholesaling warns the government of such dangers in concerns with medicines as well. At the moment, their 28,000 members of medicine importer, distributer and retailer are managing the medicine supplies by changing the routes, buying fuels from the black market and air lifting the stocks but that can't go on for long, says President of the Association, Mrigendra Meher Shrestha.
"It is true we are scrapping through at the moment. We have medicine stocks to last us a good two to three months but that doesn't mean there aren't problems. We too have 330 trucks stuck at the Raxual storehouse. To be medically secure in the future, we must be able to get them in the capital and around the country as well," says Shrestha.
Both the Chemical and Medical Suppliers Association of Nepal and the Nepal Chemists and Druggists Association ask for a few rudimentary facilities from the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP).
They specifically stress for diesel supply to facilitate their companies' transportation system. This they all agree is essential. Then they also request for security for the trucks at the border as they attempt to pass through. Further down the line, they would also like compensations for the extra investment that various companies have been compelled to make to use alternative modes of transport.
Spokesperson at the MoHP, Mahendra Shrestha, confirms that they have heard these demands from the concerned associations. When questioned about why there has not been any progress on the matter though Shrestha replies, "Fuel shortage has plagued the entire nation. At the moment, it's proving to be tricky to convince that these medical suppliers should be the first and foremost priority. But we are working on it."
It's a line the importers, distributors, and retailers claim they have been hearing since the crisis began. However as weeks have turned into months and time continues to slip by, blood banks are running low, the airfare bills are piling up, and despite the hospital's best efforts they are struggling to cater to their patients. The current scenario might not be as harrowing as the hype may suggest but without the government's swift and efficient response, the medical community is growing increasingly concerned that the situation is headed in that dreaded direction.
priyankaggurung@gmail.com
Related story
Garner graces cover of People’s annual ‘Beautiful Issue’
