Ramechhap, November 4

Eastern hill district of Ramechhap has been reeling under acute shortage of drugs of late due to the prolonged Tarai agitation.

Hundreds of patients have been affected for want of medicines in the district. Service seekers from the remote rural areas have been deprived of medicines as the District Health Office failed to dispatch necessary drugs to the rural areas due to the fuel crisis caused by the prolonged blockade along Indo-Nepal border.

According to Dr Prakash Prasad Shah, Office Chief at DHO, they were trying their best to supply the stocked drugs to the rural locations. DHO has failed to dispatch any medicine for the past four months citing zero demand from the health posts in the areas.

Padam Shrestha, Chief of a Majhuwa VDC-based health post, said they were facing a hard time due to the shortage of drugs. Doramba, Tokarpur, Gaushwara, Hiledevi, Rakathum, Majhuwa, Bamti, Gumdel, Preeti and Duragau, among other VDCs, have been reeling under acute short of drugs in the district.

Health facilities in district headquarters Manthali also have begun to witness drug crunch. Govinda Prasad Ghimire, Chairman of Manthali-based Tamakoshi Co-operative Hospital, said they had run out of injections.

Mohan Shrestha, a medicine supplier and Chief of Manthali Poly Clinic, said almost all health facilities in the district were in short supply of the medicines that are imported from India.

Meanwhile, DHO said their stock also was running out as they failed to import drugs from the Department of Health for want of transportation.