State tops in providing free drugs, vaccine: Minister

Patna: Bihar has been ranked number one on the govt of India’s DVDMS (Drugs and Vaccine Distribution Management System) portal for the past 16 months, state health minister Mangal Pandey said on Saturday. “There will be no drug shortage in hospitals as 180 medicine delivery vehicles are provided by the State Health Society, Bihar,” he said.The state govt on Saturday launched a QR code, citizen-centric initiative, under its Saat Nischay-III programme, to encourage residents to submit suggestions on improving govt services to make life easy for them in general and senior citizens in particular by providing medical assistance at home, among other benefits.Pandey said the NDA govt in the state is fast implementing its commitment to providing free and accessible medicines for the health and welfare of the poor. “The department has fully integrated 14,337 health institutions in the state into the DVDMS. The drug supply system has been made transparent, effective and accountable through digital technology so that there is no shortage of medicines at any level and needy patients receive free medicines on time. This system is a major step towards making health services people-centric and reliable,” he said.He added, “The drug supply chain in the state is now being monitored online with the successful implementation of DVDMS. “Real-time assessment of drug availability, consumption and demand is now possible from additional primary health centres, PHCs, community health centres, sub-divisional hospitals, to district hospitals. The possibilities of irregularities in drug management have now been almost eliminated. The govt’s priority is that no patient should be deprived of treatment simply due to a lack of medicine. With this objective, patients with non-communicable diseases like blood pressure and diabetes are being provided with a 30-day supply of medicine at once,” the minister said.