Last year, when the Union government amended the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, it raised hope of hundreds of terminally-ill patients, who require oral morphine.
With less than 18 hospitals in the State, including Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, authorised to stock and dispense morphine, more than 100 patients come to Kidwai in Bengaluru every month to collect the “magic medicine”. Although under the amended Act, all government hospitals are “recognised medical institutions” to stock and dispense the pain relieving medicine, no government hospital in the State has started dispensing the medicine.
State Drugs Controller Raghuram Bhandary told The Hindu that the amended Act has relaxed restrictions on the procurement and sale of morphine. “The Health Department is working on a State Palliative Care policy and a meeting of experts that was scheduled last month is likely to be held shortly,” he said. “The amendment enables registered agencies to procure morphine by obtaining a single licence from the respective State Drugs Controller,” said Nagesh Simha, president of Indian Association of Palliative Care. He, however, added that it would not result in immediate availability of the drug to every needy patient overnight. “It requires a lot of work, including sensitising and training doctors in providing pain relief and prescribing the medicine. We need uniform rules to implement the Act,” he said.
Kidwai Director K.B. Lingegowda said amendment to the NDPS Act was much-awaited. “The tough provisions in the Act, which were intended to prevent easy access and misuse of opioids, also effectively shut the door on pain relief for patients,” he said.
