Nagpur: The kin of patients will not have to go searching for Remdesivir injections at distributors, stockists or pharmacies now. The collector office has for the first time ensured Covid hospitals get all the available stock on Monday. The entire stock was taken over by the collector from the suppliers, and distributed to hospitals as per NMC’s approved bed capacity of each hospital.
After taking over the entire stock of Remdesivir allotted for the district, collector office has also issued an order on Monday that Covid hospitals and such facilities will get their share of the injections from designated distributors or stockists only. The distributors and stockists were provided a list of Covid hospitals and facilities, along with number of beds allotted to each, by the collector office. Retail sales of the drug remain prohibited in the district.
In a twist, some hospitals that had increased the number of beds beyond the number sanctioned by NMC are likely to face shortages even now. It is not known how patients admitted in these additional beds would be administered the drug. “We had sought list of hospitals and number of beds allotted to them from NMC. Accordingly, we distributed Remdesivir for 100% of their capacity. If someone has increased the beds then NMC must look into the violations,” said the collector. He added that hospitals are not supposed to ask kin of patients to procure Remdesivir from outside.
Dr Anup Marar, convener of Vidarbha Hospital Association (VHA), said they have already appealed that Remdesivir must be administered as per the mandated guidelines of Covid treatment protocols and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). “Only E and F category patients are to be treated with Remdesivir while the rest with Favipiravir. So, we can say that the shortage is unlikely to happen,” he said.
The latest order of allotting Covid hospitals Remdesivir stock may have given some respite to indoor patients, but serious patients who are yet to find a bed seem to have been left in the lurch.
A day ago, the collector office could manage to distribute some stock to hospitals after a consignment of 1,500 Remdesivir vials had reached the city’s carrying and forwarding agents (CFA) at Wadi late in the evening. On Monday, stocks from at least three more brands reached the city, allowing the collector office to send supplies to all hospitals.
According to a distributor and stockists, the Remdesivir injections are distributed from Nagpur to districts as far as Jalgaon and even in other states like Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. “The shortage in Nagpur depot will have repercussions in neighbouring states too,” he said.
As hospitals had started handing over Remdesivir prescriptions to patients’ kin to arrange for the drug, long queues were seen outside the pharmacies even beyond midnight, which had warranted the latest strategy by the collector office.