BHUBANESWAR: At a time when the government is advising people to use traditional therapies like yoga and pranayam for management of post-Covid complications and herbal drugs as immunity boosters, ayurvedic drugs worth over Rs 8.56 crore purchased last year are lying unused at AYUSH dispensaries in the State.
The reason, AYUSH doctors have been engaged in Covid duty and the dispensaries manned by them are either shut or managed by pharmacists. The drugs are now waiting to expire due to lack of timely decision on distribution by the AYUSH directorate.
Sources said more than 40 varieties of ayurvedic drugs, including sanjibani bati, anu taila, laxmi vilas and triphala churna, which have immunity boosting properties, were procured by the directorate under the National AYUSH Mission (NAM) in December last year.
The drugs gathered dust at the district level stores until mid-May and dispatched to hospitals and dispensaries only after the AYUSH Ministry advised states to allow people to have ayurvedic formulations for developing immunity.
“It is already six months since the drugs were dispatched to the dispensaries. But people are yet to benefit. They are forced to purchase the high valued ayurvedic medicines from outside. The directorate should immediately take a decision on proper distribution,” said an AYUSH doctor.
Patients are deprived of treatment and medicines as ayurvedic hospitals and dispensaries are not functioning since April after nearly 1,100 AYUSH doctors were engaged in Covid-19 management. Instead of relieving the doctors from the districts that are recording less than 10 cases daily, the chief district medical and public health officers have engaged them in OPD services leading to resentment among the doctors.
“After working hard for the last over six months, we are now facing harassment. What will we do at the OPD in PHCs when we are not allowed to prescribe allopathic medicines?” wondered another ayurvedic doctor engaged in Sambalpur district.
The State has 620 ayurvedic and 519 homeopathic dispensaries in 30 districts besides five hospitals. District Ayurvedic Medical Officers have already written to AYUSH Directorate urging immediate relieve of doctors so that the dispensaries can run smoothly.
AYUSH Director Trilochan Majhi admitted that the drugs are lying unutilised due to the unavoidable circumstances following the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are making efforts to distribute the medicines having early expiry dates as soon as possible,” he said and added that some of the ayurvedic doctors engaged in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack have been relieved.