SHILLONG: NEIGRIHMS law officer has said that the Institute had received a complaint that the department of Cardiology, Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS), Neurosurgery and Interventional Radiology were not procuring items from AMRIT Pharmacy.
In this respect, the Director has already taken the initiative by issuing circulars to the various departments to put up those items which are not available in AMRIT Pharmacy or Hospital Pharmacy in the OPD area to redress the issue.
NEIGRIHMS’ statement is in response to the news report on the functioning of medicine shops at the Institute.
The law officer E Jiten Singh said that a committee has also been set up under Dr. S. Chakraborty, HOD, ENT, NEIGRIHMS to facilitate the process of procurements of Stents, devices, implants and others from AMRIT.
“A spot enquiry also took place to detect the malpractices and a vigilance enquiry has been initiated”, the statement added.
It was erroneously reported that there was free medicine shop/pharmacy at NEIGRIHMS, which, however, was clarified by the Institute by saying that there were medicines provided at cheaper rate than the open market.“There are two medicine outlets inside the hospital complex and there might be a possibility that sometimes few medicines are not available which is a common problem in almost all the pharmacies. Recently also due to the imposition of GST such problems were faced everywhere and floods in Assam also contributed to some extent. But to say that there is no medicine is an exaggeration”, the statement added
NEIGRIHMS has also denied the allegations that those who are manning the institute pharmacy are creating artificial scarcity of medicine and that that there is nexus between the authorities and a private pharmacy behind the illegal practices.
The institute also rubbished the charge that the patients were forced to purchase medicines which they are supposed to get free from NEIGRIHMS’ own outlet and that the doctors often recommended the pharmacy inside the campus or to other shops operating outside the campus or in the city to procure medicines.
