Bhubaneswar: Four years after the launch of AMRIT (Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment) Pharmacies scheme by the Health Ministry, the state has been able to add only two such pharmacies in the state which provide subsidized drugs for critical diseases.
According to the latest reply by the health ministry in the Lok Sabha, only two such centres are operational in the state. One such centre operates from the campus of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar and another one is working from the Central Public Sector Undertaking, NALCO.
AMRIT Pharmacies are opened and operated by a Central Public Sector Undertaking of the health ministry with an objective of providing affordable medicines for treatment of cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases, stents, implants, surgical disposables and other consumables, thereby reducing the expenses.
While many states have, in the last four years, come up with multiple such stores, Odisha has till now only two such stores. Assam hosts 34 such centres while the smaller Chandigarh Union Territory also hosts seven such pharmacies. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra also have around eight such centres.
These centres are other than the Jan Ausudhi centres which operate throughout the country to sell hundreds of commonly used medicines in generic forms. Government statistics claim that even in Odisha there are 188 Jan Ausudhi centres but the AMRIT pharmacies are only two. These pharmacies specialize in selling stents, cancer and cardiac drugs at discounts of upto 50 per cent.
The ministry claims that state governments and Central government PSUs have been informed regarding AMRIT pharmacies. The operating agency of the Health Ministry has been directed to consider the requests of states and central PSUs for opening of AMRIT pharmacies at major state government hospitals and institutions.
The AMRIT pharmacies provides more than 5200 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) in the cardiovascular, cancer and diabetes drug segments and stents, implants, surgical disposables and other consumables. The AMRIT stores give a discount of 50 to 55 per cent. No response could be evoked from the state health department on the issue.