Lack of medical items in GTB forces patients to shell out more

 Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital reels under shortage of medicines and other essential medical material. The operation theatre of the hospital does not have even cotton and bandages, which the patients are forced to buy themselves.

The OTs in Delhi government hospitals are supposed to provide certain basic material free of cost.

Only equipment needed for procedures like angioplasty are supposed to be bought by patients.

However, the list of essential medical material not available in OTs in GTB include gloves used by hospital staff during surgery, cotton, bandage, spinal needle and cannula. The family members of patients have to buy these from private medical shops.

“These material are neither available in OTs nor at the hospital’s pharmacy. Doctors ask us to buy them from private chemists,” said an attendant of a patient. Sources said the cost of these material is very low for the hospital as wholesale purchases are made. A set of gloves costs Rs 5 to Rs 6 to the hospital, while patients buy them for Rs 45 to Rs 50.

Similarly, a cannula is bought by the hospital for Rs 20 while private chemists sell it for Rs 85 to Rs 90.

“Apart from the trouble that patients have to go through, the overall cost of medical treatment shoots up. This needs to be looked into and innovative solutions to such shortage should be found,” said a senior doctor of the hospital.