Delay in procurement of cold, fever medicine for PHCs

Aurangabad, Feb 4:

The number of cold, fever and cough patients has increased in rural areas in the past few days. Paracetamol is not available in primary health centers (PHC). Taking up this issue, the members took the ZP health officials to task in the meeting of the standing committee. The chief executive officer intervened and promised to resolve the issue immediately.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Zilla Parishad (ZP) president Meena Shelke at the Panchayat Samiti office on Friday. The issue of tender for purchase of medicines came up for discussion. Member Keshavrao Tayde then questioned why there was a delay in procurement of medicines. He said that in the last few days, there have been a large number of patients suffering from cold and flu in rural areas. These patients do not receive any prescription pills at the PHCs. The question arose as to why the medicine was not procured when the ZP had funds available for the purchase. Other members also raised this issue and took district health officer Dr Sudhakar Shelke to task. The members demanded action against Shelke for not giving a satisfactory answer. Meanwhile, CEO Nilesh Gatne assured that the medicines will be purchased on priority and supplied to the PHCs. Vice president LG Gaikwad, members Kishore Balande, Avinash Galande, Anuradha Chavan, Monali Rathod and officials were present.