Govt hospitals hit by lack of new drugs

HYDERABAD: The state government continues to supply comparatively outdated antibiotics to government medical institutions even though newer and more effective drugs are available in the market. Moreover, a limit of Rs 1,000 per drug per day for purchase of medicines in case of emergencies is leading to patients not getting the best possible treatment.According to professors and heads of departments at government hospitals in the city, even the antibiotics introduced last year and supplied through the Andhra Pradesh Health Medical Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APHMHIDC) are outdated, as more effective drugs have already entered the market. Last year, the APHMHIDC had introduced amikacin and cefotaxime — both antibiotic injections. These antibiotics were recently introduced by the government for supply to all government hospitals in the state. But we have patients for whom the availability of the latest drug is the difference between life and death, a department head at the Osmania General Hospital said. Antibiotics that the APHMHIDC supplies to government hospitals include amikacin, amoxycillin, ampicillin, cephalexin, ciprofloxacin and rifampicin. But the more effective antibiotics like gatifloxacin, timentin, nitilmicil, cefron and ceftrioxon are not supplied at the moment and have to be purchased as patients respond faster to these medicines, a professor at the Gandhi General Hospital said. The biggest impediment doctors face in procuring life-saving drugs is the upper limit of Rs 1,000 per drug per day. Consequently, either lives are lost or patients don't get the desired treatement as often the cost of drugs requried exceeds Rs 1,000, according to government doctors. Moreover, doctors pointed out that often its the poor who come to government hospitals and they are unable to purchase costly drugs.