TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Is the Goa Medical College monitoring the quality of medicines that are supplied to it, especially through tenders?
At a time when there are pharmaceutical manufacturers “a dime a dozen” and manufacturers cut costs and corners to fulfill the low amounts they quote in order to be the lowest bidder in government tenders, the GMC’s current procedure of allowing the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to take random samples of medicines from the hospital’s pharmacy for analyses has been found wanting.
A report submitted by the Indian Pharmaceutical Association, Goa, to the government earlier this year on improving quality and services of medicines at government hospitals, reports how the government’s own doctors do not rely on medicines supplied from the tendered supplier especially for critical products.
“The departments in GMC are very particular to insist on a few specific brands, because it is not worth taking the risk,” the report reads.
The GMC purchase committee has to bow to selecting the L1 (lowest bidder/quote) irrespective of whichever company it may be ~ many a times neither heard of, and almost always never visited or seen by any of the committee members.
It’s all okay as long as it has cleared the technical bid, which involves supplying a whole lot of documents like the manufacturing license, GMP [good manufacturing practice] certificate of the manufacturer and letter of market standing for the past two years ~ all of which are not difficult to get in the present palm-greasing Indian scenario, the report adds.
In response to an RTI query, the GMC informed that “The drug inspectors of the Directorate of Food and Drugs Administration, takes random samples of the medicines, etc… for analysis of quality from time to time from the hospital pharmacy department.”
How often this is done is anybody’s guess given that the FDA has at its disposal 12 inspectors that have to cover the entire state of Goa, including monitoring of restaurants and food packages etc, besides maintaining laws in pharmacies. That “it’s practically impossible” is the common refrain.
As a result medicines available in public hospitals are often looked at suspiciously both by the government staff as well as by patients.
“This is because they know/realize with time that either the company is not so reputed, or the packing/ presentation of the medicines is not too well, got feedback from patients that the medicines are not effective, or are suspicious of rackets in the purchase of medicines in public hospitals,” the report reads.
“Some doctors believe or go by their personal experience, and prescribe ‘higher doses’ of some medicines, because they feel they are of low potency. This is not a good practice. There is no feedback mechanism by which suspicions or quality defects can be reported,” the report states.
The report also sought to highlight the improper storage conditions that the medicines are sometimes kept in leading to deterioration in quality as well as contents of the medicines.
The government has decided to implement the common pool for purchase for the state, that is for GMC and the Directorate of Health Service (DHS) which buys for the various district, and rural and urban health centres. This will help in centralization of services, reduce manpower and reduce costs.
