Now, you can check if the drug you need is in stock in GHs

Chennai: A drug monitoring system to record stock of medicines available in primary health centres, district headquarters hospitals and medical colleges was launched on Monday. Health workers such as nurses have been trained to feed data on drugs in the system, said health minister Ma Subramaniam after launching the system.

“We decided to bring in a monitoring system after we received complaints about hospitals not having adequate stock of medicines. Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation supplies medicines to all hospitals based on usage and requirement,” he said. The data on the stock of medicines on the DDMS portal will be available to all.

Two years ago, PHCs in the state did not stock up anti-snake venom serum and anti-rabies vaccines although the risk of snake and dog bites was higher in rural areas. Over the past two years, the state has ensured that all public hospitals stock up on these vaccines.

In addition, the more than 2,000 primary health centers and urban primary health centres will also have adequate medicines for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, he said. The state will also open teleconsultation in all PHCs along with e-offices, he said.