Hospitals fail to utilise funds
Government unable send drugs submitted in indent: Hospital official
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-04-28 05:02 GMT
Vijayawada: The Government General Hospitals in Vijayawada and Guntur are failing to utilise the funds alloc-ated to them for drugs, say reports. More than Rs 1 crore for each hospital has lapsed for the year 2014-15.
The state government increased the drugs budget for two hospitals in the last financial year as they are the two major hospitals in coastal And-hra. These two hospitals serve lakhs of patients every year from Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and both Godavari districts. For the financial year 2014-15, the government allocated Rs 5,02,96,952 for Vijayawada Government General Hospital and Rs 7,44,43,764 for the Guntur Government General Hospital.
But the Vijayawada GGH utilised Rs 3,76, 62,429 and the Guntur GGH utilised Rs 6,02,58,553 in the last year. The patients often complain to the superintendents and administrative officers of the hospitals about the negligence of the staff. “The officials often say that the drugs related to psychiatry, neurology, general medicine, and cardiology are not available,” patients lamented.
In Vijayawada, state health minister Kamineni Srinivas, had suspended a doctor for treating a patient late and not keeping the emergency drugs in store. The officials say that there is no use of funds available when the government cannot send the drugs submitted in the indent.
Guntur Government General Hospital superintendent Dr. T. Venu Gopal said, “We are asking for the supply of various drugs, but they are not available in the central drug store. We are sending the indents at least a quarter before, but they cannot procure the medicines and ask us to direct the patients to buy medicines from outside. We cannot take the regular medicine more than required and store them, though there are funds available in the budget.”
Dr. U. Surya Kumari, the superintendent of Vijayawada GGH said, “We are informed that the emergency drugs like immunoglobulin, antibiotics and others are available in the central drug store. We kept asking for them for more than a year, but there is not enough supply.” When the funds have lapsed, there is a possibility that the government reduces the budget.
But, Dr. Surya Kumari said, “They should not reduce the funds in the next budget, as there is problem with the drug procurement side, but not on the hospital side.”