VELLORE: The emergency pharmacy outside the surgery block of Vellore Government Medical College and Hospital which provides medicines for discharged patients lacks basic facilities. The discharged patients have to stand in long queues in scorching heat and even in rain as there is no proper shade for them.
A help desk that assisted patients to understand hand-written prescriptions was shut down just after two months.
According to the official sources, the Vellore GH in Adukkamparai has five pharmacies, one each inside the casualty, surgical, OPD, geriatric and pediatric departments.
The 24-hour emergency pharmacy inside the surgical block is also crammed. Every day, a minimum of 300 patients visit the pharmacy after getting discharged. However, the pharmacy does not have a proper shade for the attendants.
“When it rains heavily and during extreme heat conditions, it is difficult to stand in long queues,” S Raghu an attendant, told TNIE. Additionally, the hand-written prescriptions are also a challenge for the patients for which they demand printed prescriptions.
Not only this, the pharmacy staff also face problems as they don’t have proper toilet facilities near their stalls. Sources also said the pharmacy stores are too compact and congested and there are space contraints to store the medicines. “They have vacant places inside the hospital but most of them are used for doctors’ lounge,” sources added.
Furthermore, the hospital has another pharmacy near the OPD block that attends to a minimum of 500 patients daily. “I came with stomach issues. The doctor prescribed me several medicines. I asked the staff to help me understand the prescription but the person was really fast and I couldn’t understand anything. It would be better if somebody explained it to me at a slow paced manner,” R Selvam told TNIE.
The chief pharmacist of the hospital told TNIE, “We have already proposed our problems regarding the shade and the space constraints and are waiting for the PWD approval.” “We need to renovate the pharmacy. The grievance will be soon rectified,” Vellore GH Dean Dr R Rajavelu told TNIE.