Lok Sabha Question No. 1988 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-12
Subject: Free Medicines for Poor Patients
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: P.P. Chaudhary

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1988 TO BE ANSWERED ON 12 TH FEBRUARY, 2021

## FREE MEDICINES FOR P OOR PATIENTS

## 1988.SHRI P.P. CHAUD HARY:

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

(a) whether the Government has any scheme currently operational to provide free medicines to poorsections of the society, if so, the details thereof;

- (b) whether the Government has entered into any arrangement in this regard with the States/UTs, if so, the details thereof;
- (c)  the  targeted  number  of  medicines  that  are  being made  available  free  of  cost  to  the  poor patients and the funds utilised for the purpose as on date; and
- (d) the extent to which the quality of such drugs procured is ensured?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a)  to  (d):  'Public  Health  and  Hospitals'  being  a  State  subject,  the  primary  responsibility  of strengthening public healthcare system including provision of free and essential medicin with  the  respective  State  Governments.    However,  under  National  H ealth  Mission  (NHM), technical and financial support is provided to the States/UTs to strengthen the public h system including support for ensuring sufficient supply of essential medicines, injecti other medical equipment at public healthca re facilities.

To  ensure  availability  of  essential  drugs  and  reduce  the  Out  of  Pocket  Expendi (OOPE) of the patients visiting the public health facilities, Government has rolled out Drugs Service Initiative (FDSI) under National Health Missio n (NHM).

Under this, financial support is provided to States / UTs for provision of free e medicines  in  public  health  facilities  based  on  the  requirements  posted  by  them  in Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs) within their overall resource e nvelope.

Supportunder the scheme is available for Procurement of drugs and strengthening /s tting up  robust  systems  of procurement,  Quality  Assurance,  Supply  chain  management  and warehousing,  Prescription  audit,  grievance  redressal, dissemination  of  Standard  Treatment Guidelines and Establishment of IT enabled platform DVDMS (Drugs & Vaccine Distribution

Management  System)  for  monitoring  the  real  status  of  procurement  and  availability essential medicines.

Ministry  has  recommended facility  wise  Essential  Medicines  List  (EML)  to  be  made available at the public healthcare facilities:

- i. Sub Health Centre Health & wellness centre (SHC - HWCs) -105
2. ii.Primary Health Centre Health & wellness centre (PHC - HWCs) -172
- iii. Community Health Centres (CHCs) -455
4. iv.District Hospital (DHs) -544

However,  States  have  the  flexibility  to  add  more  medicines  and  Essential  Drugs (EDL) of States vary from State to State .

Quality of drugs procured, under Free Drugs Service Initiative, is ensured throug operational guidelines of the initiative that

- i. All  drugs  must  be  sourced  from  Good  Manufacturing  Practices  (GMP)  compliant manufacturers through robust procurement mechanism.
2. ii.Post supply testing of every batch before distributing to the health facilities.