DIPAYAL: Almost all the health facilities are facing acute shortage of drugs in Doti.

The drug crunch has been blamed on the District Health Office and other stakeholders who did not show interest in ensuring timely supply of drugs in the district.

Officials complained that the District Hospital had not forwarded the necessary process for timely supply of drugs. According to health workers, the drug crunch has hugely affected patients.

Hem Bahadur Bogati, in-charge at Tikhattar Health Post, said the health facility had run out of necessary medicine for seasonal diseases.

“We have been facing lots of problems as there is no stock of medicine in the health facility. It has been more than six months that there has been shortage of iron pills, re-hydration solution, and saline water,” he said.

Of late, the number of patients visiting the health facility has been increasing with the rising temperature. Around 60 to 70 patients visit Durgamandu Health Post each day, but they are referred to private medical shops due to shortage of drugs.

Bhishma Raj Pandey, assistant health worker at the health post, said they had also used all the medicine stored in the buffer store. After the district health office failed to supply necessary medicine on time, Durgamandu Health Post has been barely managing to get drugs with the help of Village Development Committee, said Bhakta Bahadur BK, in-charge at the health post.

Bhumirajmandu Health Post has not received any drug for the past six months. They get very less drugs from the DHO, said In-charge Til Bahadur Bohora.

Deepak Bohora, store keeper at DHO, said they were unable to deliver drugs to any health facility in the district for the past three months as the regional medical store in Dhangadi and the contractors failed to supply the drugs.

Though they had managed a little amount of urgently required drugs in coordination with district-based non-governmental organisations, it was not enough.

DHO Acting Chief Ramswarth Yadav said necessary medicine was being supplied to his office. “The medicine was supplied late due to delay in the tender process. Currently, we are in the process of verifying the drugs. They will be dispatched to all the health facilities of the district within a few days,” he said.