The essential drug shortage crisis continues at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), while the state health department turns a blind eye to it, almost.
Mithilesh Kumar, a vitiligo (a condition in which a portion of the skin loses pigmentation) patient who turned up at PMCH's outpatient department on Thursday, could not find any of the seven medicines prescribed to him.
Also, Sharda Devi, a sugar patient, did not get any of the four medicines prescribed to her from the drug store for OPD patients. Mithilesh Kumar, who hails from Biharsharif, was angry. "There must be a scam involving hospital workers because of which the medicine stock at the hospital has got exhausted. The state government should address this problem on an urgent basis," he said.
Sharda Devi agreed with him. "There is complete mismanagement at this hospital. All patients are being denied medicines," she said.
While patients continued to rough it out, health department officials have become inaccessible.
Numerous attempts to contact health department principal secretary Brajesh Mehrotra, department secretary Anand Kishore and health minister Ramdhani Singh proved futile.
The Telegraph tried to contact principal secretary Mehrotra, but his cellphone was switched off. Sources said he was in the United States to attend a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation meeting and would return on May 11.
Many calls to department secretary Anand Kishore's cellphone and landline, too, went unanswered.
Health minister Ramdhani Singh carefully avoided speaking on the matter. Whenever his phone was called, his personal secretary, Sridhar Pandey, would pick up and say the minister was busy in some programme. Pandey later went on to say: "There is no crisis in government hospitals. You can quote Ramdhaniji saying this. You have called up on the minister's number. So whatever I am saying, you can quote him as saying. I, too, have been in this department for long," he said over the phone.
Department joint secretary S.K. Sharma was the only one to give a statement. "Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (BMSICL) has issued tenders for purchase of drugs. At this moment, I can't tell you by what time the drug procurement process would be completed," he said.
Health department sources said BMSICL officials have stopped taking interest in the drug purchasing process since the drug scam surfaced last year. Most BMSICL officials were scared of getting embroiled in some problem if they take part in the drug purchasing process, sources said.
"The drug crises will take time to get solved. Corporation officials don't want to take any risk this time. They would take time completing the tendering formalities," said a source.
