State to allocate hospital-wise fund for medicine procurement

Itanagar, Jul 31: In order to bring about a radical change in the healthcare delivery system, the Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to allocate hospital-wise fund for procurement of medicines on experimental basis.

Saying that it was a decentralized mode of allocation, Finance Minister Kalikho Pul said funds had been earmarked against particular hospitals or sub-centres to reach out to the people even in the remotest area.

''A board will be constituted at each level under the chairmanship of local administrative officer with one local representative, one panchayat leaders as members and the district medical officer as the member secretary to assess and workout the requirement of medicines for each health centre as per needs of the locality and ensure transparency in procurement process,'' he opined and hoped that awareness and transparency at grassroot level would prevent pilferage and corruption.

The government, keeping in view the requirements, had earmarked Rs eight to ten lakh for each district hospital, Rs three to six lakh for each community health centres(CHC) and Rs two to three lakh for each primary health centres(PHCs), the minister informed adding, the allocation was fixed on the basis of populationa and other special requirements.

For General Hospitals at Naharlagun and Pasighat, Rs 30 lakh and Rs 20 lakh had been earmarked respectively for medicine procurement, he informed and added that over and above an amount of Rs. 55 lakh had been placed at the disposal of state health department for procurement of medicines in the form of buffer stock, which could be utilized at the time of emergency and epidemic.

Mr Pul further said the government had allocated more than Rs 20 crore under special plan assistance and additional central assistance to support the maintenance, renovation and extension of existing infrastructure in various hospitals and health centres of the state.

UNI