Jan Aushadhi store not in pink of health

Jan Aushadhi store not in pink of health
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 11
Just four months after it was inaugurated, the Jan Aushadhi, a generic medicine store located at the Civil Hospital is not only finding it tough to keep itself afloat but is also causing a major loss to the already existing Red Cross Medical Store (RCMS) there.
Shortage of medicines, lack of trust in doctors towards prescribing brands available with the Jan Aushadhi and the varying rate of margin, are some factors creating hurdles in the running of the shop.
The store was aimed to provide medicines at a cheaper rate, with the motive to reduce the economic load on the patients. The shop has a list of 120 approved salts, which is also given to all the doctors, to keep it as a priority while prescribing drugs to a patient.
At the time of the opening of the store, a condition was imposed on the RCMS that it cannot sell any medicine having the same salt that was allotted to the Jan Aushadhi.
Jan Aushadhi is being run by the Red Cross Society, Bathinda. It is an initiative of the department of pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India, and was supported by the Bureau of Pharma, PSUs of India (BPPI).
Sources informed that five such medicine stores were opened throughout the state. Five production houses, under the Union government, were selected to supply medicines to these stores.
Employees of the Jan Aushadhi said that at the time of opening, the companies sent the consignments on their own, irrespective of the requirement. As a result, medicines worth thousands are still lying here without any purpose, they said.
Moreover, when some medicines ran out of stock, orders were placed with the companies but the supply remained poor, they said. “Even after passing of over a month, some medicines for which orders were placed are still pending. It is badly affecting the reputation of the shop. Moreover, due to the condition imposed, the RCMS too cannot sell it. So, patients have to go out of the hospital to get such medicines at the print rate,” they added.
As per the statement of account, the total sale at the shop was estimated at Rs 4 lakh in the past four months. The shop gets a margin of 10-20 per cent at the print rate of the medicines, which they have been finding to be less in comparison to the expenses incurred at the shop.
Sources in the hospital informed that doctors too lack trust in the brands available at the shop, so the prescription slip goes to other shops.
Seeking anonymity, an employee of the RCMS said, “The administration should be a bit liberal. When the Jan Aushadi goes out of stock, it should allow us to sell the same salt of the other brand as we sell all the medicines at a discount. It would be beneficial for the patients and the Red Cross both.”
When contacted, Secretary, Red Cross Society, JR Goyal said, “We too are worried over the issue. It is for this that a meeting was recently held to discuss the issue. We are hopeful of sorting it out soon.”