Mumbai, July 9 (IANS) Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who chaired the meeting of the Maharashtra Medical Goods Procurement Authority, said if more transparency and streamlining are brought into the medicine procurement process, there will be no shortage of medicines.

“The Medical Education Department and the Public Health Department should use a single e-medicine computer system for purchasing medicines, equipment, and medical devices. A two-year rate contract should be fixed to ensure the supply of medicines at a uniform rate based on quality and within the stipulated time. Annually, 70 per cent of medicine procurement is standardised. In this regard, a common plan should be devised and its proposal submitted,” he added.

Fadnavis stated that all government hospitals should procure and distribute medicines simultaneously, follow a transparent tender process, emphasise quality, establish storage systems in every district, and each hospital should submit demands for essential medicines through an online system.

“To ensure maximum availability of doctors in rural hospitals, vacant posts should be filled urgently. Currently, medicine warehouses are operational in 15 districts, and for the remaining 20 districts, the availability of space in government medical colleges in the respective districts should be checked, or action should be taken to establish medicine warehouses through public-private partnerships (PPP model),” he added.

According to him, medicine warehouses or drug depots must have facilities such as proper temperature, a cold storage system, stock management and quality control. He directed that medicine warehouses must have clean, ventilated, humidity-controlled, cold storage systems, inventory management, and quality control facilities.

“Simultaneous purchase and distribution of medicines in all government hospitals, transparent tender process, emphasis on quality, storage system in every district and online requisition of necessary medicines for every hospital should be done. Vacancies should be filled immediately to ensure maximum availability of doctors in rural hospitals,” he added.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar indicated that the production of medicines should be within a month, and their validity period should be at least two years. He also said that funds will be made available to provide all medical facilities in rural areas.

–IANS

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