No relief for city patients despite Centre’s call for generic medicines

NEW DELHI: A seriously ill patient hailing from Delhi, suffering from Tuberculosis and infection in the bone marrow, is facing a hard time getting discounted medicines from AMRIT pharmacy at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here.

The patient’s wife, who is running short on money, rushes to get the discounted medicine only to face disappointment and rude behaviour of the pharmacy staff.

Keeping the suffering of similar patients in mind, it is ironic that the Medical Council of India and the Centre are pushing doctors across the country to prescribe generic medicine to their respective patients.

According to an official at AIIMS: “There is a procedure that if doctors prescribe the medicines or injection with their stamp on OPD (outpatient department) or admission card, the pharmacy provides it at discounted rates.”

However, it seems such rules are not honoured in the hospital for this TB patient.

The patient’s wife needed albumin injection for her husband, but due to its high price, she could not buy it from even the AMRIT pharmacy.

When the attendant pleaded the pharmacist for the injections – which they could not afford it to purchase from outside – the pharmacist asked her to leave the pharmacy counter and even threatened to call the police it she kept on arguing. The woman told Millen

nium Post: “They even threatened me and my father with calling the police if we insisted on the discounted medicines. The doctors earlier gave us albumin injection but as my husband does not fall under the category of below poverty line, they could not continue it for long.”

Left with no option, the woman had to buy the injection from outside the premises of AIIMS.

The price of an albumin injection is Rs 4,200.

At discounted rates, she could have bought the injection for 80 percent less than the market price.

However, the woman had no choice but to buy the injection for Rs 3,400.

The woman, preferring to keep her identity hidden, said that AIIMS’ AMRIT pharmacy does provide medicines at discounted rates, but it’s uncooperative staff claim that the injections are not available and refuse to sell them at discounted rates.

Meanwhile, the AIIMS official said that the pharmacy is also not providing Docetaxel 120 mg, which is used for chemotherapy cycle. The drug costs Rs 13,400 for one cycle, and is similar to Coboplatin 450 mg.

Uncooperative staff at AMRIT pharmacies at AIIMS refuse to sell generic drugs at discounted rates even as the Centre pushes doctors to prescribe generic medicines