KARACHI: The life of the patients is at stake as the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center JPMC has been facing medicine shortage since several weeks, causing a grave inconvenience to the visiting and admitted patients, it was learned on Thursday.
An official at Pharmacy Department informed that JPMC had been facing 50 per cent shortage of medicines since a few weeks. He said that the visiting and out-patients had been compelled to purchase medicines from private medical stores over drug shortage in healthcare facility.
He says JPMC is one of the largest tertiary care government hospitals in Sindh, where patients from all over Pakistan come for treatment, but drugs are not available in intuition due to traditional lethargy of high-ups of Sindh health department.
He informed that although administration was providing life-saving medicines to patients with emergency requirement, but majority of OPD and admitted patients had not been provided life-saving drugs. He said stock of medicines and surgical items had almost ended in the hospital and provincial health authorities concerned could not arrange medicine yet which was affecting poor patients visiting the hospital.
The shortage of drugs and surgical items in the hospital had compelled poor patients to purchase medicines from medical stores who come from all over Pakistan for better health facilities in hospital.
The official said 5,000 to 6,000 patients visit different OPDs of the hospital each day and patients had to stand in queues for hours to get medicines, but they do not get all medicines prescribed by doctors due to shortage of medicines in the store. The hundreds of poor patients face hardships as they are compelled to buy injections, drips and other medicines from private medical stores.
The patients were being advised by doctors to buy medicines, drips and syringes from medical stores as these medicines were not available in hospital pharmacy. Executive Director, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center JPMC, Prof Dr Shahid Rasool, confirmed that JPMC had been facing shortage of drugs and said patients were being provided life-saving drugs through local purchase LP.