JAGATSINGHPUR: The State Government’s ambitious Niramaya Scheme has once again failed to meet the needs of poor patients. The attendant of a patient has brought allegations of empty medicine strips being distributed in the District Headquarters Hospital.
One person Chiranjib Das hailing from Deuligrameswer alleged that his father was admitted to district headquarters hospital for treatment. Of the medicines prescribed by the doctor, only two were available at the hospital’s Niramaya outlet while he had to purchase others from a private medicine shop.
The two medicine strips of Cefixime which were supplied by Niramaya outlet did not have tablets. I was I forced to purchase the same from a local shop at a higher price,” he added. This is, however, not the first instance. Other patients too have alleged that on many occasions they have received empty packets and had to buy those from outside. Though the authorities concerned were informed of it, no action was taken.
It may be recalled that in 2017, a paediatric specialist Mamata Satpathy, medicine specialist Himanshu Sekhar Nanda of Jagatsinghpur DHH, medical officer of Manijanga Community Health Centre Suresh Kumar Lenka and Kanakpur PHC’s doctor Sanjib Kumar Mohapatra were suspended for not implementing Niramaya scheme. Of the 260 types of medicines, we have supplied a minimum of 123 medicines to Nirmaya outlets, a distributor said.
Additional District Medical Officer (Medical) Jahar Kumar Mahant said “We have received the allegations regarding empty medicine strips being supplied through Niramaya outlet. The health department has verified the batch of the packet mentioned by Chiranjib and storekeeper of Central Warehouse has been directed to supply medicines to Niramaya outlets after proper checking. Packaging error may be the cause of non-availability of medicines in the packet,” he added.
There are two Niramaya outlets on the premises of DHH in Jagatsinghpur hospital while CHCs and PHCs have one each. There is one central warehouse where the stocks are stored before being supplied to the outlets but lack of seriousness in implementing the scheme has led to the failure of the scheme.