At downsized VS hospital, drug shortage poses new challenge

Shortage of general medicines for two weeks, may get restocked by Feb 20

Over 600 beds from the VS Hospital were transferred to the new SVP hospital. (File Photo)

Less than a month after the VS Hospital was downsized with over 600 of its beds being transferred to the new Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation-run hospital is witnessing a shortage of everyday drugs. In one such instance, an 80-year-old man was sent home for the lack anti-rabies vaccination on Wednesday.

Abdul Razak Sheikh was taken to the VS General Hospital for an anti-rabies shot in the afternoon. “We were told by the nurse in-charge that the hospital has not had rabies vaccines in their stock since the past four days. They told us that if it is urgent, we can buy the vaccine from outside and they will inject. How can I afford the anti-rabies vaccine which costs some Rs 350-400 per dose,” said Gulam Rabbani, his son who had taken Sheikh to the hospital.
“Going to an urban healthcare centre (UHC) is pointless as they do not keep these vaccines,” Rabbani added.

Sheikh, who was attacked by a cat, will now wait for a few days till the hospital re-stocks the vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the first dose of the four-dose anti-rabies course should be administered as soon as possible after exposure.

“I took charge in the past 10 days or so. We may have seen some shortage of a few drugs in the past couple of days. We have a total of 560 essential drugs (provided free of cost by the AMC) of which some may run out of stock at times based on the OPD demands. We order it immediately whereafter delivery may take some time. As for the anti-rabies vaccines, we have only a single supplier Pune-based Serum Institute of India. But we are trying to tie-up with other suppliers so as to avoid situations like these. We have seen a similar shortage in rabies vaccination a couple of times in the past six to eight months,” said superintendent of VS General Hospital Dr Manish Patel.

After the inauguration of the SVP hospital by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 17, the superintendent of VS hospital, Sandeep T Malhan, was transferred there.

Meanwhile, Dr Nishith Shah, who attends to OPD patients on Tuesdays and Fridays, complained about the shortage in medicines. “The dispensary has continually been seeing a shortage or absence of painkillers and antibiotics in the past week. Patients have come back to me complaining that they were being told at the dispensary that the medicines I prescribed were not available.”

Drugs such as Glipizide and Gliclazide, which is used to treat Type-2 diabetes, antibiotics such as Linezolid, and pain killers such as Ibuprofen (400 mg) tablets, Diclofenac have not been available at VSH for more than two weeks now, Dr Nishith said.

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Mayur Dave, senior BJP councillor, who is also on the board of management of VSH said, “We expect to be re-stocked by February 20. I admit we have seen a shortage in blood pressure and diabetes medicines since January. However, we see similar shortages every year during the winter months since demand goes up for medicines. We order when we are at half-stock whereafter the supplier delivers within one to two days. However, we are seeing some delays from suppliers’ side this time although payment has been on time and there’s not much we can do about it at present since we are dependant on them.”

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