The government lists at least 64 drugs as essential and free for patients but it’s difficult to even find a free dose of paracetamol (prescribed for the common cold) at the city’s premier health hubs.

Most essential drugs are unavailable at the outpatient departments of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH). They have to buy the drugs at market prices from outside, punching holes in the government’s claims of improvement in the health sector.

At the outpatient department of PMCH The Telegraph found only four of the essential drugs were available. Twenty such drugs were available at NMCH.

So a person bitten by a stray dog won’t get a dose of anti-rabies vaccine for free at a health hub, it would have to be bought from a store outside at Rs400-Rs 500 an injection. At least five such doses are required. Similarly, those suffering from cardiovascular diseases do not find amlodipine for free and have to buy it from outside.

Nibha Singh, a 19-year-old resident of Bakarganj, could not find an anti-allergic, cetrizine, prescribed by a doctor at PMCH’s outpatient department. “I will now have to buy the drug at a store outside. Why does the government claim to provide better healthcare facilities when even basic medicines are not to be found?”

A store employee said PMCH offers only aciclovir (anti-viral), cough syrup, digestive enzyme syrup and Soframycin.

On the unavailability of the 60-odd essential drugs listed by the health department, he said: “Please ask the hospital administration.

“Whenever the stock of a drug is exhausted, we let the administration know and they decide what to buy.”

He added that oflaxacin (to treat bacterial infection) was not available for over two months and requests for replenishing the stock have fallen on deaf ears.

Dr Bimal Karak, deputy superintendent, PMCH, said: “We are helpless as the superintendent, Dr Arjun Singh, has resigned and is not attending meetings for buying medicines.”

Dr Singh, who heads the orthopaedics department of PMCH, put in his papers on April 4, after serving just a month as superintendent.

Vishnudev Prasad Singh, a 45-year-old resident of Raja Bazaar with a small cycle repairing shop, was diagnosed with high blood pressure at the PMCH outpatient department. He said: “I did not get atenolol, which was prescribed to me, at the store. I don’t know how long I will be able take the drug now that I have to buy it.”

The State Health Society, Bihar, last year commissioned an audit of drugs (based on 1,540 prescriptions given to patients at PMCH and Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital) to Delhi Society for Promotion of Rational Use of Drugs. The report (aided by UK’s Department for International Development) highlighted that 50 per cent of drugs in the ‘essential list’ were out of stock throughout last year.’

Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey could not be contacted. But R.P. Ojha, additional secretary, health, attributed the crisis on the failure of drug suppliers to provide medicines on time. He said: “Many times the suppliers fail to deliver the drugs on time which leads to the crisis. However the department is trying its best to sort out the problem.”