PESHAWAR: The medicines and disposable items to be purchased for public sector hospitals next year will cost 900 per cent more than what the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government spent for them last year, according to a report of the health department.

However, provincial director-general (health services), Dr Shaukat Ali claimed that irregularities didn’t take place in the selection of medicines and that such claims were just “propaganda of vested interest.”

He told Dawn that he rejected the report regarding the purchase of low-quality drugs at inflated prices as the process of selecting drugs was better than last year’s.

A sent by the health department’s Medicines Coordination Council (MCC) to the government regarding the prices of approved drugs shows a huge difference in the prices of drugs purchased last year and to be purchased in the current year.

DG health rejects report

It added that the medicine costs would go up from Rs5 billion to Rs44.584 billion rendering it difficult for the newly-elected government to afford them.

“Every year, the government purchases drugs for its around 2,500 health centres in the province. As a result, the health facilities will procure fewer drugs and other items in their allocated budget, and the availability of lifesaving medicines will haunt patients throughout the year. Patients will be ultimate sufferers,” it read.

The DGHS, which is currently in the process of drug procurement, selected 351 drugs from the MCC formulary list under a “pre-defined master plan.”

The report said the directorate made tailor-made tendering criteria for the “blue-eyed bidders and ended up procuring low-quality goods at very high prices,” according to the report.

Previously, 800 drugs were purchased for the entire year for the same amount.

If compared with the current year approved MCC rates, the rates in the last five years, especially the previous year, are almost 900 per cent higher, causing a huge loss to the government, the report said.

The report also carried a detailed comparative summary of the goods selected for 2022-23 and 2023-24.

It said 351 items were being purchased at higher prices than last year’s, and they included intravenous cannulas, X-ray films, catheters, gauze cloth, nasal oxygen cannulas, disposable spine needles, cotton, antibiotics, painkillers, drips, and anti-snake venom.

The report said this year, the department started procurement very late due to financial issues in the province, and Rs5 billion was allocated for four months from March to June 2024 but next year, the government had to allocate over Rs44 billion to procure items for the whole year.

Last month, the DGHS, through the health secretary, wrote to the finance department that a lack of drugs in the government’s hospitals could create a law-and-order situation, and so it desperately required Rs9 billion to ensure the availability of drugs.

The report said a “tailored” technical evaluation criteria was adopted that not only led to selection of poor-quality items but also that the rates approved were extremely exorbitant, even if compared with the approved prices of other procurement entities throughout the country and with the last five year procurement records of the government, MCC, medical teaching institutions, and primary, secondary, and tertiary care hospitals in Punjab.

It added that the government should investigate the matter as high-ups were involved in it.

DG Health Dr Shaukat Ali rejected the report regarding the purchase of low-quality drugs at higher prices and said that they had completed the entire process of drug selection better than last year.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2024