KARACHI, March 27: With three months to go in the current budget year, the health department is yet to procure many medicines needed badly in the government hospitals, said a source.

He said the health secretary, Ashique H. Memon, had taken note of the dire situation. He might take up the issue with the chief minister within a week.

The source said many irregularities had been observed in the procurement of medicines. “It’s been seen that the procurement department often sanctions the purchase of the required medicines in small packages, which are generally uneconomical.”

Similarly, under the guidelines some samples should be taken from each batch that’s purchased and then tested for quality. “This is not being done.”

The source claimed that almost all hospitals in the public sector were suffering at the hands of procurement department officials.