Urging the government of Tamil Nadu to adopt a pragmatic policy to overcome the shortage of supply of ASU medicines to government ayush hospitals, PHCs and NRHM centres, the Chennai-based Indian Medical Practitioners Co-operative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (Impcops) has made a proposal to the state health department to outsource medicines from registered societies of manufacturers.
The supply of medicines to government hospitals is done by the public sector manufacturing unit, Tamil Nadu Medicinal Plant Farms and Herbal Medicine Corporation Ltd (TAMPCOL). The company is unable to manufacture medicines for the total requirement of the 850 Siddha, Ayurveda and Unani hospitals and 300 NRHM centres. All the ASU hospitals are running short of essential medicines, and the available medicines are also poor in quality.
Sources from Impcops said it can supply quality medicines at lower rates and provide their own logistic services.
Apart from TAMPCOL, there are two registered societies of ASU drug manufacturers in the state, one is Impcops and the other one is Gandhigram Lakshmi Seva Sangham (GLSS) in Dindigul district. Impcops is a multi-state co-operative society of registered Siddha, Ayurveda and Unani graduates and GLSS is a registered trust under Gandhigram. Most of the drugs manufactured at GLSS are supplied to various depots and marketing agencies.
According to Dr. R Kannan, president of Impcops, the society is all prepared to supply all kinds of medicines for the total requirement of the state if the department of Indian Systems wishes to reduce the shortages. Impcops manufactures and supplies 750 ASU drugs to its 22 depots all over south India. If government is interested to procure medicines from the society, without any logistic problem Impcops can supply to all the hospitals from Kanyakumari to Chennai. In Tamil Nadu alone, the society has 15 depots which have stocks of all kinds of medicines.
“Government has to supply medicines to hospitals and primary health centres. There are 300 health centres under NRHM, medicines to these centres should also be supplied by the state government, for which fund is allocated by central government. TAMPCOL cannot fulfill the total requirement of all these centres. If government considers our request, it will be an impetus for Impcops to grow up and thereby to supply all kinds of medicines to the Ayush hospitals,” said Dr. Kannan.
Responding to the proposal of Impcops, an ayush think-tank, Dr. Thirunarayanan said it will be a welcome initiative from the government's part to boost the society if the department of ISM outsources medicines from Impcops. In the case of allopathy medicines, TNMSC procures medicines from private companies. Similarly, government should outsource drugs from Impcops and LSS. He further said, government should also increase the budget allocation for ayush sector. In the present budget, only Rs. 12 crore has been allocated for Ayush, he alleged.