Lok Sabha Question No. 298 (STARRED), answered on 2019-07-12
Subject: Shortage of Essential Medicines and Equipments
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Sudheer Gupta, Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 298 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 12 TH JULY , 2019 SHORTAGE OF ESSENTIA L MEDICINES AND EQUI PMENTS

## *298. SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA: SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR:

Will  the  Minister  of  HEALTH  AND  FAMILY  WELFARE  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware that hospitals across the country, parti Government hospitals are facing acute shortage of essential life sa ving medicines, injections and other medical equipments;
- (b)  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to essential medicines to hospitals;
- (c)  whether  this  shortage  is  even  worse  in  rural  Primary  Health  Centres and Community  Health  Centres  and  has  also  led  to  death  of  many  patients  in country;
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and
- (e) the corrective steps taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FA MILY WELFARE (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

- (a) to ( e):  A statement is laid on the Table of the House

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 298* FOR 12 TH JULY , 2019

(a)  to  (e)  'Public  Health  and  Hospitals'  being  a  State  subject,  the  primary responsibility  of    ensuring  sufficient  supply  of  essential  life  saving  m injections  and  other  medical  equipment  in  public  health  facilities  inc Primary Health Centre s (PHCs) and Community Health Centres (CHCs) is that of respective State Governments.

To ensure availability of essential drugs and diagnostics and reduce t of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) of the patients visiting the public health fac Governme nt has rolled out the Free Essential Drugs Service Initiative (FDSI) and Free Diagnostics Service Initiative under National Health Mission (NHM).

Under  this,  financial  support  is  provided  to  States  /  UTs  for  provis medical equipment and free essent ial medicines in public health facilities based the requirements posted by them in their Programme Implementation Plans (PI within their overall resource envelope. This support includes strengthening/setting up robust systems of procurement, qual ity assurance mechanism, warehousing, prescription audit, grievance redressal, disseminati Standard Treatment Guidelines, and IT backed supply chain management system like Drugs and Vaccines Distribution Management Systems (DVDMS).

A ll States/ UTs ha ve reported that they have notified this policy to prov free essential medicines in public health facilities. The Ministry has also provided illustrative  list  of  essential  medicines  that  should  be  provided  at  Sub Primary Health Centres, Communi ty Health Centres and District Hospitals. The list is available in public domain at nhsrcindia.org/sites/default/files/Fa essential Medicine 06 July - 16.pdf. The list includes:

| Name of the Facility    |   No. of Medicines |
|-------------------------|--------------------|
| Sub-Centre              |                 57 |
| Primary Health Centre   |                285 |
| Community Health Centre |                455 |
| District Hospital       |                544 |

Drugs and Vaccines Distribution Management System ( DVDMS )is a web -based  Supply  Chain  Management  System  that  deals  in  purchase,  supply, distribution  and  inventory  management  of  various  drugs,  sutures,  surgical consumable  items.  It  has  an  in - built  provision  of  monitoring  and  checking  the availability of medic ine at all facilities at district and state level. DVDMS various Regional/ District Drug Warehouses (DWH), District Hospitals (DH), t sub  stores  like  Community  Health  Centres  (CHC)  and  Primary  Health  Centre (PHC). Moreover, it has the functional i y for distribution of drugs to patients, th enabling tracking of consumption till last mile.

National  Health  Policy,  2017  envisages  a  potentially  achievable  targ raising public health expenditure to 2.5% of GDP in a time bound manner by 2 and out of this, two third will be allocated for the primary healthcare.

Towards  achieving  the  above  objective,  1.5  lakh  Health  Sub  Centres  a Primary Health Centres are being transformed into Health and Wellness Centres by December  2022  across  the  country  u nder  Ayushman  Bharat  (AB - HWCs)  for provision of comprehensive primary care that includes preventive healthcare health promotion at the community level with continuum of care approach.

The AB - HWCs will provide an expanded range of services to include c are for non - communicable diseases, palliative and rehabilitative care, Oral, Eye ENT care, mental health and first level care for emergencies and trauma as w Health  promotion  and  wellness  activities  like  Yoga  apart  from  services  al being  p rovided  for  Maternal  and  Child  Health  including  immunization  and communicable  diseases .All  these  AB - HWCs  will  have  the  provision  of  free distribution of medicines to the patients visiting these public health facili

On the basis of the proposals rece ived from all States/ UTs (except, UT of Delhi),  so  far,  approvals  for  52,744  Ayushman  Bharat - Health  and  Wellness Centres  (AB - HWCs)  have  been  accorded.  Out  of  those,  as  reported  by  the States/UTs, 19,567  AB- HWC  are operationalized  till  05 th July,  2019.  T he  state -wise list of operational AB - HWCs is at Annexure.

| Sl. No.           | State Name                | TOTAL             |
|-------------------|---------------------------|-------------------|
| Non_High_Focus    | Non_High_Focus            | Non_High_Focus    |
| 1                 | Andhra Pradesh            | 2157              |
| 2                 | Goa                       | 26                |
| 3                 | Gujarat                   | 1617              |
| 4                 | Haryana                   | 452               |
| 5                 | Himachal Pradesh          | 18                |
| 6                 | Jammu & Kashmir           | 235               |
| 7                 | Karnataka                 | 708               |
| 8                 | Kerala                    | 673               |
| 9                 | Maharashtra               | 2602              |
| 10                | Punjab                    | 847               |
| 11                | Tamil Nadu                | 1577              |
| 12                | Telangana                 | 1127              |
| 13                | West Bengal               | 399               |
| Union_Territories | Union_Territories         | Union_Territories |
| 14                | Andaman & Nicobar Islands | 30                |
| 15                | Chandigarh                | 10                |
| 16                | Dadra & Nagar Haveli      | 31                |
| 17                | Daman & Diu               | 23                |
| 18                | Delhi                     | 0                 |
| 19                | Lakshadweep               | 0                 |
| 20                | Puducherry                | 18                |
| North_East        | North_East                | North_East        |
| 21                | Arunachal Pradesh         | 54                |
| 22                | Assam                     | 933               |
| 23                | Manipur                   | 63                |
| 24                | Meghalaya                 | 18                |
| 25                | Mizoram                   | 4                 |
| 26                | Nagaland                  | 54                |
| 27                | Sikkim                    | 29                |
| 28                | Tripura                   | 71                |
| High_Focus        | High_Focus                | High_Focus        |
| 29                | Bihar                     | 600               |
| 30                | Chhattisgarh              | 796               |
| 31                | Jharkhand                 | 363               |
| 32                | Madhya Pradesh            | 243               |
| 33                | Odisha                    | 1002              |
| 34                | Rajasthan                 | 578               |
| 35                | Uttar Pradesh             | 2072              |
| 36                | Uttarakhand               | 137               |
| Total 19567       | Total 19567               | Total 19567       |