Dhangadi, March 6

Service seekers have complained that the medicines doctors prescribe are unavailable at the pharmacy operated by Seti Zonal Hospital in Dhangadi sub-metropolis in Kailali.

The patients are compelled to buy medicines at high cost from private pharmacies as the medicines are unavailable in government-owned pharmacies.

While people throng private pharmacies to buy medicines, the pharmacy in the zonal hospital wears a deserted look.

Nageshwor Chaudhary, a patient, said of the four types of drugs prescribed by the doctor, only one type of medicine was found at the pharmacy of the hospital. He said he had been to the hospital six times in eight months, but he could not get all the drugs from the hospital’s pharmacy. “The same medicine is available in all the pharmacies outside the hospital, but it is unavailable in the hospital’s pharmacy,” he added.

Similarly, Govinda Singh Khatri of the sub-metropolis, who reached the hospital for his father’s treatment, had to return empty-handed from the hospital’s pharmacy.

“I bought the medicines from private clinics as they were unavailable in the hospital’s pharmacy,” he added. He said that there was no point in operating the pharmacy inside the hospital if the medicines were unavailable. The zonal hospital had brought the pharmacy into operation inside the hospital aiming to provide medicines at cheap rates two years ago.

Hospital pharmacy In-charge Bharat Kunwar admitted that medicines were unavailable at the pharmacy. He said that scarcity of medicines in the hospital pharmacy worsened after the suppliers did not supply medicines on time. He claimed that around 1,000 types of medicines were available in the pharmacy.

The zonal hospital said that only two companies have been supplying medicines. Kunwar said that DB Medicinal, and Drugs Centre of Dhangadi did not supply medicines on regular basis.