Health facilities across the country lack essential drugs, including the oral rehydration solution (ORS), which is vital in the treatment of diarrheal infection.
"We have decided to purchase 400,000 packets of oral rehydration solution to manage the immediate crisis," said Dr Baburam Marasini, director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD) of the Department of Health Services (DoHS).The EDCD has decided to skip the official procedures to do away with the delay in the procurement of ORS.
According to Director Marasini, it would take over a month if they were to follow government procedures, while the medicine is needed immediately. "We have to dispatch the medicine to health centers immediately, so we don't have time to follow the official procedures," said Dr Marasini.
He said the problem arose as the concerned agency of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) tasked with supplying the medicines could not meet its obligation.
MoHP has listed 70 types of medicines that is to be provided to patients free of cost through government health facilities.
The Primary Health Revitalization Division (PHRD) of the Department of Health Services, which is responsible to ensure free medicines, conceded that there is a shortage of essential drugs at health facilities across the countries.
"We need Rs 2.71 billion to purchase all essential drugs in adequate quantities, but the Ministry of Finance has provided only about half the amount," Dr Ramesh Kharel, director at the PHRD, said.
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Health facilities across the country without essential drugs
