By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: All medical and chemist shops across the State will remain shut on May 10 in view of the country wide agitation called by the All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), even as the Meghalaya Healthcare Association (MHA) has pledged to make sure that medical help is provided to all seriously ill patients in selected hospitals in the city.
Announcing the decision here on Tuesday, MHA vice president David Kharsati informed that Nazareth, Bethany and Woodland hospitals have been asked to provide all medical aid in case of emergencies.
“We will close all medical shops for a day in support of the nationwide agitation called by the AIOCD,” Kharsati said while adding that the agitation has been called against unjust policies of the Union Government.
“The Centre’s decision to slash the trade margin both in retail and wholesale pharmaceutical products is unjust,” he said.
Meanwhile, MHA president Utpal Kumar Das informed that two members from the MHA will be participating along with 7.5 lakh AIOCD members in the agitational programme to be held in New Delhi on May 10.
While stating that the one-day shutdown of all medical shops is aimed at sending a strong message to the government, Das said, “We do not want to play with the lives of the people.”
The charter of the demands include maintenance of trade margins of medicines in the forthcoming Drugs (Price Control) Order 2013, to resolve the long pending issue of shortage of pharmacists and suitably amend Rule 65(15)(c) of the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules and to permit the partner/proprietor as a qualified person to dispense the medicines. The AIOCD is also against FDI in distribution and retailing of medicines in India.