The MoHP has already allocated budget to help the hospitals set up their own pharmacies. "From this year, central and regional hospitals will have to operate their own pharmacies. We have already allocated budget for the purpose," Dr Pravin Mishra, secretary of MoHP, said. He said that poor patients, who visit central and regional hospitals for treatment, will be able to buy medicines at reasonable price as those hospitals will run low cost pharmacies. [break]
Most government hospitals across the country have been renting out spaces to private pharmacies and generating millions.
Poor patients from across the country reach government hospitals hoping to get treatment at reasonable cost but private pharmacies charge high price for medicines.
Doctors at the government hospitals are said to prescribe medicines under the influence of pharmaceutical companies that provide them with attractive gifts. Such trends are expected to end once the government funded low-cost pharmacies come in operation.
Officials at the ministry said that the low-cost pharmacies of Manamohan Cardiothoracic, Vascular and Transplant Center (MCVTC) and at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), which have been providing huge discounts to patients prompted the government to run such pharmacies elsewhere as well. Patients at MCVTC and TUTH pay below the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for medicines, some time 800 percent less than the MRP. The TUTH administration said that drug manufacturers provide huge profit margin to sellers, which it hands down to patients in the form of discounts.
Meanwhile, the TUTH administration has decided not to renew contracts of the private pharmacies operating inside the hospital premises in the next fiscal year. The hospital has decided to run its own pharmacies. The hospital administration said that it has already informed the owner of the pharmacies about the decision of the management council.
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