September 26, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 13, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The ministry of health has rejected a request of the Federal Government Services Hospital (Polyclinic) to opt out of the nascent central drugs procurement arrangement.

Federal Health Minister Nasir Khan, while chairing a meeting to discuss the centralised procurement of drugs, almost pleaded the hospitals to make it a success.

The health ministry has recently started the central drugs procurement system for federal government hospitals. The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), which encountered drugs quality problems, was one of the major driving forces behind the new system.

But within weeks of the launch of the new system, it ran into problems with Polyclinic asking to be removed from the arrangement because of certain reservations.

One of the major reasons put forward by the hospital was that it had to cope with a huge burden of providing medicines to parliamentarians.

However, sources claimed that there were many other reservations expressed by the hospital’s administration which pertained to quality of drugs purchased through the centralised system and their availability.

There were also concerns that the new system could give rise to corruption with benefits being bagged by a few.

Brushing aside Polyclinic’s concerns about the centralised procurement, the federal minister said there would be no compromise on quality of drugs and that the new procurement system was cost-effective and the benefits obtained could be passed on to ‘poor patients’ in the shape of purchasing additional medicines.

He asked the hospitals to ensure provision of essential and life-saving drugs.

Hospitals should strictly monitor the supply chain of drugs and disposables and devise mechanism to control pilferage, he said.

The minister directed the hospitals to keep sufficient stock of essential and specialised drugs in the Parliament House dispensary for the use of parliamentarians.

Secretary Health Khushnood Akhtar Lashari proposed establishment of a central procurement cell under the supervision of inspector general (hospitals) which would be responsible for making guidelines and criteria for central procurement.