BHOPAL: The AIIMS-Bhopal medical store ran out of PPE kits, N95 masks and other basic essentials, reveals a tweet through the institute’s official account.
Nearly 30 items for Covid-19 treatment were listed as ‘nil’ in November (through December). Patients not covered under Ayushman Bharat and similar government schemes were affected and bore the additional cost of treatment.
The December 24 tweet, with pictures, reveals that the hospital stock status on November 30 and the replenished status on December 22. Items like N95 masks, syringes were ‘zero’ on November 30. “True Leader! #priorityPatientHealthcare Thankyou Dr. Nitin M Nagarkar for #statuschange in AIIMS Bhopal from ‘zero’ hospital supplies to ‘abundance’,” it said.
The tweet by @AIIMSBhopal has raised questions on how the hospital operated without basic Covid-19 essentials for almost 22 days (going by the two photos). The PMO, health ministry and Bhopal collector were among those tagged in the tweet.
AIIMS-Bhopal deputy director administration (additional charge) Shramdeep Sinha and hospital superintendent Dr Manisha Shrivastava maintained, “Hospital also has procurement through AMRIT retail pharmacy network and we fulfilled our requirements through it.”
Almost a decade after AIIMS-Bhopal was established, a drug and therapeutics committee (DTC) for it was approved only last month. The committee will anticipate medical supplies required so that patients don’t have to go to other pharmacies for drugs that are prescribed but unavailable at the superspecialty hospital.
The December 24 tweet also brings to light a situation of shortage of supplies in one of the largest tertiary hospitals in Madhya Pradesh — that too during a pandemic.
“It is a matter of concern what AIIMS-Bhopal has been able to give to patients almost nine years after it was established. We are still in the process of making each of the AIIMS centres for excellence,” said an official, requesting not to be named.
The claim of ‘abundance’ of stocks in the December 24 tweet seems a stretch, say insiders. The situation is not ideal, even going by the dashboard of requirements tweeted by the official account. There is a shortage of basic items like disposable syringes, based on the dashboard. For instance, it is short of disposable syringes of 20ml, 5ml and 50ml by 16,000, 57,700 and 11,575 units respectively.
Urgent purchases have been met and regular procurement procedures would follow. In the recent weeks, reagents for diagnostic tests have also been affected to procurement delays, according to sources.
