Kidney patient protest row: Purchase of medicine by choice of individual patient not feasible, says Odisha government

BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Sunday made it clear that it was not possible to purchase medicines of different brands by choice of the individual patients.

It was the response from the government for a group of kidney patients who have been staging dharna in front of the residence of health minister Naba Kisore Das since November 7 demanding proper medicine for them.

The high-level meeting chaired by chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra here clarified this after reviewing the medicine supply situation to the kidney transplant patients in the SCB medical college and hospital (MCH) and other MCHs of the state.

Health secretary Shalini Pandit in the meeting said the quality of the medicines supplied to the patients by the Odisha State Medical Corporation Limited (OSMCL) through Niramaya counters was thoroughly tested in national accreditation board for testing and calibration laboratories (NABL) accredited laboratories before being procured and supplied to the hospitals.

“The laboratory reports also proved that those drugs were highly effective. OSMCL followed a robust method of online procurement, transparent quality test, and purchase. The medicines found highly effective and appropriate through rigorous scrutiny were being procured and supplied by OSMCL with no consideration for any specific brand,” said the health secretary.

The health department sources said kidney transplant was started in SCB MCH, Cuttack in March 2012. So far, 187 transplantations have been conducted and treated at SCB. Now around 120 post-transplant patients are under medication. Out of them, around 75 percent were taking the medicines supplied through OSMCL. These patients never reported any side effects, and their health condition also indicated good progress, said the official communication.

“Only around 30 patients demanded medicines of specific brand from private medicine stores raising a baseless complaint that the medicines supplied by OSMCL had side effects,” said the official statement of the government.

The medical experts present in the meeting appraised that the same medicine supplied by the government agency for kidney patients was also being used by around 400 patients under critical care in other departments like Nephrology, Rheumatology and Dermatology. The medicines had no side effects and were quite effective, they added.