Essential drugs, supplies stuck at ports, cash-strapped Pakistan staring at worst medicine crisis

Doctors are forced to not perform surgeries due to the shortage of drugs and medical equipment.

Pakistan's dismal economic condition has hit healthcare system badly, leaving patients in a dire situation as they grapple to get essential medicines.

'The lack of forex reserves in the country has affected Pakistan's ability to import the required medicines or the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) used in domestic production, news agency ANI reported.

Doctors are forced to not perform surgeries due to the shortage of drugs and medical equipment.

According Pakistani local media, the operation theatres are left with less than the two-week stock of anaesthetics needed for sensitive surgeries, including for heart, cancer and kidney.

The situation might also result in job losses in hospitals in Pakistan, further adding to the miseries of people.

Pakistan's pharma industry is highly import-dependent with almost 95 per cent of the drugs requiring raw materials from other nations, including India and China.

Most of the imported materials have been held up at the Karachi port due to a shortage of dollars in the banking system.

Meanwhile, the cost of making drugs is constantly increasing due to rising fuel costs, transportation charges and the sharp devaluation of the Pakistani rupee.

Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves, which fell to a critically low level of USD 2.9 billion a few weeks ago, have now risen closer to USD 4 billion, even as the country eagerly waits for the USD 1.1 billion tranches of funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The country's weekly inflation remained stubbornly elevated at 2.78 per cent week-on-week and 41.54 per cent year-on-year during the seven-day period that ended on February 23.

This comes as the government of Pakistan almost doubled the gas charges from Rs 147.57 to Rs 295 to get the IMF's approval for the USD 1.1 billion tranches out of the USD 6.5 billion bailout package under the Extended Fund Facility.

Analysts had said last week that inflationary pressures would intensify as the government took tax measures and made electricity, petroleum, and gas price adjustments to unlock the IMF programme.

Pakistani citizens have been reeling under the burden of rising prices of essential items, particularly edibles.