Kerala to set up district-level teams to monitor medicine availability in govt hospitals
Kerala's Health Department will establish district Medicine Availability Monitoring Teams to verify shortages, assess stock, and redistribute medicines, ensuring patients receive necessary supplies and reporting weekly.
Kerala's Health Department will establish district Medicine Availability Monitoring Teams to verify shortages, assess stock, and redistribute medicines, ensuring patients receive necessary supplies and reporting weekly.
Kerala's Health Department will establish district Medicine Availability Monitoring Teams to verify shortages, assess stock, and redistribute medicines, ensuring patients receive necessary supplies and reporting weekly.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Health Department will set up district-level Medicine Availability Monitoring Teams to ensure the uninterrupted supply of essential medicines at government hospitals and prevent shortages.
Health Minister K Muraleedharan has directed the Principal Secretary of the Health Department to constitute the teams in every district. They will verify complaints about medicine shortages, assess actual stock levels and take corrective measures before supplies run out.
The Additional DMO (Health) or Deputy DMO (Health) will convene the team, with the concerned hospital superintendent, Assistant Drugs Controller/Drugs Inspector, pharmacy store superintendent or officer in charge of the pharmacy, and KMSCL warehouse manager as members.
“The key criterion is whether patients are actually receiving the medicines, rather than merely whether records show that they are in stock,” the minister said.
The teams will assess actual stock, patient numbers, medicine consumption, anticipated demand and supply delays. They will also conduct direct inspections of hospital pharmacies and stores instead of relying solely on records.
If a hospital has excess stocks of medicines that are in short supply elsewhere, the teams will explore redistribution in accordance with existing rules and procedures.
The teams will submit weekly reports based on their inspections. Reports covering hospitals up to district general hospitals will be sent to the Director of Health Services, while medical college reports will be submitted to the Director of Medical Education.
The reports will include details of available and shortage medicines, requirements based on patient numbers, anticipated demand, reasons for shortages, supplies expected through KMSCL and corrective measures taken.
In case of a serious shortage, authorities need not wait for the weekly report. The issue must be reported immediately to the concerned authorities, and urgent steps taken to ensure supplies, the minister said.
The system aims to ensure timely availability of essential medicines, resolve complaints promptly, and identify gaps in the supply chain, the Health Department said.