Distributors will resume the supply of medicines and surgical devices to the Government Medical College Hospital here after the government agreed to pay a part of the pending dues. The supply had been suspended in the past few days as the government had failed to pay the dues running to crores of rupees.
The decision was taken after District Collector S. Sambasiva Rao held a meeting with the distributors on Tuesday in which the medical college officials and representatives of the Hospital Development Society participated. The stoppage of supply of medicines and the suspension of angioplasty and angiogram procedures since June 21 had hit poor patients. Some heart patients were referred to private hospitals after the cath lab functioning was halted.
Mr. Rao later told the media that a part of the dues would be released in two days. The remaining amount could be released as early as possible, he said.
P.K. Nidheesh, State secretary, Chamber of Distributors of Medical Implants and Disposables, said 40% of the outstanding funds were expected to be released within two days and the remaining by July 15.
Mr. Rao promised to put in place a system which would ensure release of funds to the distributors without delay. The medical college is getting funds to distribute medicines and do other medical procedures through the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Karunya Benevolent Fund, tribal medicine scheme and casualty medicine scheme. The supply was disrupted after the release of funds through the schemes got delayed owing to technical problems.
The private insurance company that is implementing the RSBY scheme owes crores of rupees to the government claiming that the scrutiny of the case sheets and other documents of the beneficiaries is yet to be completed. A special team of doctors is examining the documents now and some of the cases have been cleared. The State government also released around ₹2 crore under the Karunya scheme too.
