LARKANA, Dec 2: The Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana, is facing a shortage of medicines as the provincial health department has delayed the regular supply of medicines from the Import and Inspection Depot to it.

Sources in the hospital told this correspondent on Tuesday that since the onset of the current financial year to date, five months had lapsed but the Import and Inspection Depot of the Sindh government, which supplies 75 per cent of the

medicines to the Chandka Medical College Hospital, has not done it.

According to the new break-up, the medical superintendent of the Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana, is entrusted to only make local purchase of medicines of 25 per cent while the Import and Inspection depot would provide 75 per cent of the medicines to the hospital.

On being contacted, the medical superintendent of the Chandka Medical College Hospital, Dr Syed Mehboob Shah, told this correspondent that every patient admitted in the hospital was approaching him for medicines and we are trying to cope with things by utilizing the ‘user charges funds’.

On being asked as to how the demand was met when they did not get the major share of medicines from the department concerned, he simply evaded the question by saying that things were going well.

The matter has been conveyed to the advisor on Health to the Sindh chief minister and the quarters concerned.

A source in the Chandka Medical College Hospital said that on Nov 18 the tenders for supplying medicines to all the teaching hospitals in Sindh had been finalized by the Sindh government. The department concerned in the Sindh health department had earlier told the Chandka Medical College Hospital that the medicines would be sent to Larkana before Eid but it was not done.

Sources said that the Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana, had received Rs17.5 lacs from the Zakat Committee but it was a meagre amount.

The medical superintendent of the Chandka Medical College Hospital was apprised in Tuesday’s meeting that the Import and Inspection Depot had ordered for supplying medicines but the hospital had not received it as yet.

Sources in the budget department of the Chandka Medical College Hospital, Larkana, said that it has 1,230 beds, but it receives only Rs20,372,000 in the head of medicines, which means that only Rs45 is allocated for each patient per day. Only Rs4 is allocated for each patient for meals three times a day.

They said that each patient in the Civil Hospital Karachi (1,500 beds) gets Rs118 per patient per day, each patient in the Liaquat Medical College Hospital Hyderabad (1,200 beds) gets Rs105 per patient per day, and the People’s Medical College Hospital Nawabshah (750 beds) gets Rs61 per patient per day.

Sources said that the Sindh government provides the budget in the ‘diet sector’ where a single patient in the Civil Hospital Karachi receives Rs10 per day for three times diet, a single patient in the Liaquat Medical College Hospital Hyderabad receives Rs12 per day, a single patient in the People’s Medical College Hospital Nawabshah receives Rs9 per day, and a single patient in the Chandka Medical College Hospital Larkana receives Rs4 per day.

They said that the management of the Chandka Medical College Hospital Larkana has demanded an additional amount of Rs33,000,000 to meet its demands in the heads of diet and medicines.