Health Ministry to request Treasury for Rs. 2 billion for emergency medicine purchases

The Health Ministry is planning to request the Finance Ministry to release funds amounting to Rs. 2 billion needed for the purchase of 200 types of essential medicines as emergency purchases. 

Health Ministry Secretary Janaka Sri Chandraguptha told Timesonline that agencies tasked with procuring medicines have informed that it would take at least four-and-half months to obtain these medicines if they were to be purchased under existing tender procedures. However, this is not feasible given the urgency of the matter. If the stocks were obtained under emergency purchases, the stocks should be available in one-and-half months, he claimed. 

Mr Chandraguptha blamed the prevailing medicine shortages on lapses by state agencies tasked with procuring medicines, noting that incomplete and inaccurate data on available stocks were making it difficult for authorities to calculate which drugs and medical equipment were running low.