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| Draft drug policy advertised for inputs | | | Sant Kumar Sharma
JAMMU, September 14:
The Health & Medical Education (HME) Department has sought opinions and comments from the public regarding the new drug policy that it plans to formulate. An advertisement, issued by joint director (planning) Tariq Ahmed has already been released in some select newspapers.
People have been asked to submit their views within the next 15 days.
The drug policy is envisaged to prioritize and express the goals and identify the main strategies for achieving them. It is aimed at ensuring safety, quality and efficacy of medicines, besides promoting good prescribing practices, dispensing practices and rational use of drugs.
The full-page advertisement (almost 4,300 words) makes it clear that the department has set for itself some very ambitious targets and the draft has been elaborated under 16 points.
The points on which the public’s comments have been sought include highly technical quantification of drugs, procurement of essential drugs, ware-housing and distribution, financing, quality assurance and regulation, drug advertisement and promotion, rational use of drugs and even pharmaco-vigilance.
Under the heading rational use of drugs, the government has said that its aim is to ``promote rational use of drugs so that patients receive medicines appropriate for their clinical needs, in doses that meet the individual requirements’’.
At point number 3, the department has given broad outlines regarding procurement of essential drugs. Under point number 3.4, it has promised to set up a centralized medicines procurement corporation.
Giving broad contours of the government plans, the advertisement says: ``Tamil Nadu Medicine Supplies Corporation which has achieved unprecedented success in ensuring timely availability of quality drugs has been recommended by the Government of India and the World Health Organisation to be adopted for procurement.’’
It also lists the advantages of having such a centralized procurement system under a, b, c and d heads. The main thrust of the argument is that such a system leads to more price competitiveness and economies of scale leading to lower costs.
To provide for transparency in the procurement, the proposed corporation will ``develop an appropriate information management system and web-based e-procurement model’’. The proposed corporation shall produce an annual report on its activities which shall be submitted to the government.
It is pertinent to remember that some steps were taken in the past also to set up a centralized procurement corporation. However, the half-hearted manner in which the idea was pursued ultimately led to its abortion.
For a long time, ad hocism has prevailed in the department regarding procurement of drugs. Even at present, the system of procurement at best can only be called ad hoc. Some years ago, a Central Purchase Committee (CPC) was created for drug procurement but later two Provincial Purchase Committees (PPCs) came into being.
The PPCs were scrapped later and instead CPC 1 and CPC 2, for Jammu and Srinagar, respectively, were created. The committee at the Government Medical College & Hospital, Jammu, has been functioning without any major hiccups but the same cannot be said about the GMC Srinagar committee, according to sources in the department.
The question that comes of one’s mind is whether how many members of the public can actually give meaningful inputs into these highly technical subjects. Also, how many members of the public or even for that matter the medical fraternity will read through the 4,300 word advertisement?
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