Medicine worry: 70% stock arrives at Medical College and Hospital Kolkata

KOLKATA: The medicine woes at Medical College and Hospital Kolkata (MCHK) may soon be over, at least for a few weeks. Fresh stocks of medicines, which have started arriving on Sunday, are being stored at the temporary pharmacy located on the sixth floor of the mother and child hub building of the hospital. Sources at the hospital said that more stocks would be arriving.

“About 70% of drugs required for uninterrupted supply of medicine to patients have arrived. The process for procuring more is on so that we can meet demands by all departments on time,” said Dr Indranil Biswas, medical superintendent and vice principal (MSVP) at MCHK.

Wednesday’s fire at the hospital’s department of pharmacy had destroyed medicines and medical consumables worth more than Rs 5 crore. The pharmacy had stored medicines, which would have lasted for about a month, only a couple of days before the fire broke out.

Essential drugs for patients undergoing treatment at the hospital, medicines required regularly at operation theatres, including anaesthesia drugs, emergency medicines and life saving drugs have arrived. The pharmacy has already started supplying medicines to all wards. “Few departments had to requisition a part of their requirements from other medical colleges on Thursday and Friday. But now things are getting streamlined,” said a doctor.

All departments store medicines that last for four days to a week. Since the fire had destroyed the entire hospital stock there was a fear of medicine crisis.

“Since our department caters to critical patients, we always keep excess stocks of medicine with which we are managing now. With fresh stock arriving now, there shouldn’t be any crisis,” said Dr Partha Pratim Mandal, deputy in charge at the hospital’s CCU that has 21 patients at present.

While the new location to operate the hospital’s central pharmacy was identified on Thursday, stocks of medicines started arriving from Friday. The officials expect it to start working in full swing from Monday.

The new pharmacy is about hundred metres from the emergency ward, whereas the old pharmacy, where the fire broke out, is located just opposite the ward.

Even as the supply for indoor patients is being streamlined, the long wait for drugs at the OPD medicine counter is likely to continue as the new pharmacy will be out of bounds for OPD patients. Since it’s located inside the Mother and Child Hub that houses indoor patients, the hospital authorities have decided to distribute OPD medicines from the OPD building only.

“We’ll have to continue rationing medicines to OPD patients till the full stock arrives. We are already running short of some drugs. But we expect the problem to be solved in a week,” said a source at the OPD outlet.