KOHAT: Hundreds of patients entitled to get free medicines at the two major hospitals in Kohat have been facing dilemma as the annual medicine quota was exhausted nearly two months ago.

Due to the medicine quota issue, the district health office could not distribute medicines to 41 basic health units, rural health centres and the government dispensaries as well as tertiary hospitals.

The district health officer, Dr Gul said that those facilities were located in the far-flung and inaccessible villages where round the clock medicines were not available like Kohat, while on the orders of administration two stores, one in the KDA and the other in the heart of the city, remain opened.

It may be mentioned that the patients were entitled to free medicines at the emergency and also those admitted in the wards under the Sehat Sahulat Programme, however, they were purchasing medicines from the markets.

Meanwhile, the patients coming to the facilities from across Kohat, and other four districts of the division during the second shift were asked to bring all medicines from the market, as, what they said, the stores were closed at 2pm.

In the cases of child births, although medicines were available at the LMHWC but the staff prescribed unnecessary drugs between Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 which were later sold in the market, reliable sources had told Dawn several times in the past.

The cumulative annual requirement of both the hospitals amounted to Rs. 74 million.

The sources said that the budget proposal put forward by the provincial purchasing committee had been approved but was not being released, which was still in the process of re-evaluation by the chief minister’s office.

The medical superintendent of the divisional health facility of KDA, Dr. Qazi Naeem when contacted said that the budget was always released by July 1, but this time it had been delayed extraordinarily.

Similarly, the medical superintendent of the LMH, Dr. Ikramullah told Dawn they used to receive medicine stock on quarterly basis, each worth Rs. 8 million, but this time it is yet to bereceived.

Dr. Qazi explained that the spent amount on medicines would be reimbursed.

About the efficacy of the free medicines provided at the government hospitals, he claimed that after receiving the medicines they were subjected to strict tests at the laboratories before giving those to patients.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2025