Nagpur: The news about the much-sought after Remdesivir injection being made available at major medical stores in Gandhibagh, Dhantoli and Ramdaspeth led to chaos and great inconvenience to relatives of Covid patients on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.
Many couldn’t buy the life-saving drug even after waiting till dawn as stockists refused to accept digital proof of Covid positive certificate, Aadhaar card and doctor’s prescription.
In the latest measures to check misuse and black marketing, the district authorities had made submission of three documents a must for patients.
As relatives had already spent most part of the day tirelessly running from pillar to post in serach of the injection, the news made them rush to stores without hard copies of the documents.
“People insisted that they would submit the papers later and for the moment requested stores to accept digital copies on WhatsApp. But they refused. At 2am, how can one get a print out or photocopy away from home,” said a management consultant who joined the queue at 9.30pm on Friday.
The professional questioned the district collector’s directives. “What is the actual order nobody knows. Stockists are giving only one dose at a time while a Covid patient needs six doses. This means citizens will have to go through the same harassment for every dose every day or night,” he said.
The news attracted people from the outskirits who too had turned up without print outs or photocopies.
The Remdesvir stock was said to be over at authorized outlets and later black marketers were on a looting spree charging relatives anything between Rs8,000 to Rs25,000 per vial.
On Saturday night, the situation turned more chaotic as more relatives queued up outside a popular stockist in Ramdaspeth. At several places, a token system was introduced yet the crowd swelled.
The district administration also launched a portal showing enough availabity of Remdesivir in each of the over 100 Covid hospitals in the district. But, aggrieved relatives said the hospitals were asking them to get the injection. Also, the district authorities did not clarify about patients who are moderate.
Chartered accountant Bhavesh Gehani said, “I was searching for the injection for four days. The hospital assured our patient will get Remdesivir. Now, they are asking us to arrange from outside. In-house pharmacies are giving other medicines but only Remdersiver is not provided. All types of excuses are being given. I paid Rs 8,000 for one dose and got it finally.”
Gagandeep Singh Vij, an NGO volunteer, said hospitals too are not sure of the next dose.
Explaining the situation, Vidarbha Hospitals’ Association convener Dr Anup Marar said there are 2,769 doses as per the official data but the admitted patients are double in number. “Leave aside those in home isolation, most hospitals have been allotted 50% of the applicable quota. Till 10pm on Saturday, our pharmacy representative was waiting for the allocated 50 doses for 81 Covid and 9 SARI ward patients. Whom are we supposed to select and give? We were assured today morning of complete doses of 81 patients by evening. Now we know at 10pm that only 50 patients are to be picked and chosen. Tragic,” he said
He added that private hospitals have been directed not to issue prescriptions to admitted patients and authorities will ensure that all of them get their daily doses by evening. “Almost all indoor patients who could not arrange on their own are screaming and shouting at us. What are we supposed to do? Someone should do something,” he said.