Lok Sabha Question No. 2052 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-30
Subject: Supply of Essential Drugs under NHM
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Alok Kumar Suman

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2052 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 30 th JULY, 2021

## ' SUPPLY OF ESSENTIAL DRUGS UNDER NHM '

## 2052. DR. ALOK KUMAR SUMAN:

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

- a) whether the Government under National Health Mission has taken up with all the Sta for  making  provision  of  free  essential  drugs  in  all  hospitals  in  the  country,  i details thereof;
- b) whether the Government has supplied generic drugs free of cost to the hospitals in including district Gopalganj;
- c) if so, the details thereof; and
- d) whether the Government has taken any measures to keep a check on over prescripti and wastage o f drugs by the hospitals and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH & FAMILY WELFARE (DR. BHARATI PRAVIN PAWAR)

(a) to (d):

'Public Health and Hospitals' being a State subject, the primary responsibility of strengthening public  healthcare  system  including  provision  of  free  essential  drugs i public  healthcare facilities, lies with the respective State Governments including Bihar.  However, under Natio Health Mission (NHM), technical and financial support i s provided to the States/UTs including

Bihar to strengthen the public healthcare system including support for ensuring sufficien of  free  essential  drugs  at  public  healthcare  facilities  towards  the  objective  of providing accessible, affordable and q uality healthcare to all those who access public health facilities .

To ensure availability of essential drugs and reduce the Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOP the  patients  visiting  the  public  health  facilities,  Government  has  rolled  out  the  Fr Service Initiative (FDSI) under National Health Mission (NHM).

Under this, financial support is provided to States / UTs including Bihar for provisio essential medicines in public health facilities based on the requirements posted by them Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs) within their overall resource envelope.

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 timestatus of procurement and availabilit y of essential medicines.

DVDMS  is  a  web- based  Supply  Chain  Management  System  that  deals  in  purchase,  supply, distribution  and  invento ry  management  of  various  drugs  and has  an  in - built  provision  of monitoring and checking the availability of medicine at a ll facilities at district and state level.

Further, Ministry has recommended facility wise Essential Medicines List (EML) to be m available at t he public healthcare facilities. The number of drugs under EML at various level Public Healthcare facili ties is as below: -

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

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

In addition to this, the States are encouraged to do prescription audit to improve the care provided by the health facilities and also to ensure prescription of generi c and rational use of drugs. Standard Treatment Guidelines (STGs) have been developed for ensuring rational of drugs and preventing all forms of wastages.

As per the information received from the State Government of Bihar, the State makes essential drugs available to all the government hospitals free of cost and has been spending considerable amount on procurement of quality generic drugs for government hospitals. Besides this, th also gets financial support under Free Drug Services Initiative of NHM . As per the information received from the State of Bihar, the State has received Rs. 160 crores for the financial year 2021- 22 under NHM Free Drug Services.

Generic drugs are being supplied free of cost to all the government hospitals in the State of Bihar including the hospitals located in the district of G opalganj .

Further, State has informed that DVDMS has been launched in the State and formation of Drugs and Therapeutic Committee in all the districts and at State HQ level is underway to monitor all the issues related to equitable and rational distribution of drugs, which encompasses c over prescription and wastage of drugs by the hospitals.