Dadeldhura, October 30

With the far-west Sub-regional Hospital at Amargadhi Municipality in Dadeldhura running out of stock of medicines, patients have been compelled to buy medicines provided free of cost by the government, from private health facilities.

The patients could not get medicines provided by the government even though the hospital statistics showed that the medicines were bought with more than Rs 2 million.

A relative of a Sita Aire, a new mother at Phinnikot of Amargadhi Municipality reached the medicine distribution centre of the hospital, but returned empty-handed. He bought all the medicines that were supposed to be free from a drugstore outside the hospital.

The hospital has to provide 70 types of medicines free of cost. But patients have to buy the medicines from the drugstore outside.

Meanwhile, hospital Management Committee Chairman Laxman Budhaaire said that he was unaware about the scarcity of drugs in the hospital. He said the medicines, which were to be given free of cost, were available

in the hospital. “The patients could not get the medicines due to negligence on the part of staffers at the hospital,” he added.

Accountant Rudra Nidal at the hospital said that the supply of free medicines might have finished at the health facility. “The process of buying additional medicines is underway,” he informed.

Staffers at the hospital said that the health facility could not run smoothly due to lack of coordination between hospital management committee and hospital staffs. They added that there was always conflict between the management and the staff. The staffers further said that around five crore budget of the hospital was frozen due to internal dispute last fiscal.