With meagre budget, dearth of drugs in 14 govt med colleges

Indore: State medical education department running 14 government medical colleges is unable to provide ample quantities of medicine to associated hospitals as the allocated drug budget is less than 12% of its annual requirement.“The budget allocated to medical education department for medicines is around Rs70 crore. These facilities cumulatively require around Rs 600 to 700 crore annually for medicines,” an official requesting anonymity said.“The problem of lack of budget has been persistent for the last 10 years. In the last one decade the number of government medical colleges rose to 14 from six leading to this persisting issue”, added the official.These medical colleges are running over two dozen public hospitals that are tertiary care and super specialty facilities in the state.There are around six cancer hospitals, two super specialty hospitals, several maternal hospitals, and other referral centers of tertiary level associated with these medical colleges in the state.According to estimates, around one crore patients avail treatment in facilities of the government medical colleges in a year. Commissioner medical education Gopal Dad told TOI, “There is a shortage of drugs supply to hospitals of the government medical colleges in the state due to budget constraints. We are putting our efforts into sorting out the issue.”Because of this budget constraint, the patients’ services are hit causing trouble to them. This led to non-availability of medicines and failure to maintain even stocks of drugs in essential medicine lists in the stores of these medical colleges and associated facilities.On Monday, the drug stores in these medical colleges are maintaining a stock of one to 478 medicines in essential lists against prescribed 530 drugs, showed the dashboard of Madhya Pradesh Public Health Services Limited (MPPHSCL).MPPHSCL is the nodal agency for centralized procurement and supply of drugs and equipment to the public health facilities in the state.This unavailability forces medical college authorities to either pay for drugs through an autonomous fund or make local purchases that can be only 20% of total requirement. And consultants are forced to ask patients to buy medicines from over the counter, officials said.

Govt sanctions 43 faculty posts for medical college

The state cabinet has allotted 43 faculty posts in the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in Ernakulam, including 12 faculty for super specialty. This decision will strengthen the super specialty services in the hospital, making it the major advanced treatment center in central Kerala. However, the government did not allot plastic surgeons to the medical college, which is concerning given the industrial nature of Kochi. The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board recently allocated Rs 80 crore for procuring medical equipment for the MCH.

BJ Medical College starts new study to test TB prevention

BJ Medical College in Pune is conducting a study called 1HP to test the efficacy of a combination of two drugs, rifapentine and isoniazid, in preventing tuberculosis in HIV+ patients. The study aims to determine if a shorter drug regime can be effective in treating these patients. The current standard treatment for TB is a six-month course of isoniazid, but it can lead to non-compliance. The trial will enroll patients with a CD4 count below 200 and follow them for a year to assess the results.

CM inaugurates several hospitals in Kadapa, vows to transform RIMS into a medical hub

Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated the Dr YSR super speciality hospital, Dr YSR institute of mental health, and LV Prasad eye hospital buildings at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in YSR Kadapa. The chief minister aims to transform RIMS into a world-class medical and healthcare hub, providing the best healthcare facilities to the Rayalaseema region. The super speciality hospital has 452 beds and 10 super speciality departments, while the mental health institute has 100 beds. The eye hospital buildings were also inaugurated.