Ensure hospitals have pharmacies: SC

  • The govt has provisions for free distribution of 70 kinds of medicines

Kathmandu, September 18

The Supreme Court today issued a writ of mandamus telling the government to ensure all hospitals — private and public — have their own pharmacies on the premises of hospitals.

A division bench of Justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha and Tej Bahadur KC issued the order in response to a writ petition filed by Forum for Protection of Consumers’ Rights.

Chair of FPCR Jyoti Baniya said the court ordered the government to ensure that all the hospitals had their own pharmacies and distributed free medicines.

The government has provisions for free distribution of 70 kinds of medicines, but until now these medicines were distributed only by the government’s district hospitals. Baniya said the apex court also ordered the government to ensure periodic monitoring of distribution of free medicines and compliance of government directives issued to the hospitals.

Baniya said his organisation filed the case two years ago after it found that medicines sold by a private pharmacy at Bir Hospital leased by the hospital were costlier by up to 325 per cent in comparison to the pharmacies of TU Teaching Hospital.

Baniya said government hospitals were leasing space to individuals to operate private pharmacies on their premises for a monthly rent of Rs 13 lakhs to 25 lakhs, which in a way had increased the burden on patients.

The petitioner had named the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and the National Human Rights Commission, among others, as defendants in the case.