POKHARA/BAJURA: The protracted ongoing Madhes agitation and the unofficial blockade at Indo-Nepal border points have created the shortage of drugs in Pokhara and the Far-Western Development Region of the nation.

If the situation prevails for few more days, the hospitals in Pokhara will run out of live-saving drugs and Intensive Care Units (ICUs) will be shut down, the health facilities warned.

Pokhara imports more than 60 per cent of drugs from India and the third countries.

The drugs against diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid, kidney problems and cancer are difficult to find around Pokhara.

According to Dr Badri Paudel, Founder of Charak Memorial Hospital and Research Centre, more than 70 per cent of patients have stopped visiting hospitals amid fuel and drug shortage.

Senior doctor at the Western Regional Hospital in Pokhara, Basanta Tamrakar, said that he had been prescribing the alternative medicines in place of antibiotics used in the ICU.

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Due to the crunch of drugs, the patients have been compelled to travel to Kathmandu and India for treatment.

Jhalak Sharma, a drug wholesaler, said that medicines worth more than Rs 7 billion have been stranded at the border points due to ongoing Madhes stir.

Similarly, the Far-West Region too is reeling under the shortage of essential medicines.

All the seven hilly districts of the Region are running out of medicines, informed Laxmi Kumar Shrestha of Regional Health Directorate, Dipayal.

Dr. Mohan Nath, Head of Bajura District Heath Office, said that they have been compelled to send back the patients without treatment.

Not only drugs, but food too is felt short in the whole region, claimed Mekh Raj Ojha, an officer at Nepal Food Corporation, Bajura branch.