Bedside medicine delivery: KGMU patients’ wait for launch to last longer than anticipated

The bedside medicine delivery facility at the King George’s Medical University – first announced in November – envisioned with all good intention, is yet to see the light of day.

The November announcement came with the news that over the next two-three weeks, a department will be selected to run it as a pilot programme. However that too did not happen.

The bedside medicine delivery facility was announced under the Hospital Revolving Fund, which would deliver medicines prescribed by doctors directly to the patients’ bedside, HRF in-charge, Dr Sumit Rungta, had then said. This would eliminate any need for attendants of patients to run helter skelter trying to procure medication.

However, as it stands now, patients will have to wait at least another month to be able to avail this facility.

According to KGMU spokesperson, Dr KK Singh, the pilot programme is stalled as the terms of the tenders for many of the items included under the HRF are close to completion. He said, “The tenders for over 60% of the medications are coming to an end this March, and new tenders will be called for April onwards. We have halted the process until the whole list of medicines are finalised,” said Dr Singh.

Approximately 5,000 items, including medicines and surgical equipment, feature in the list for the HRF. “About 2,000 tenders have been finalised, and the process for the remaining 3,000 items will be initiated in April,” explained the spokesperson.

Further, he said that when this initiative was envisioned by the vice-chancellor, Dr Soniya Nityanand, many departments did not have their own pharmacies. This has since then been rectified, which has done away with the need for the pilot programme that had been announced by Dr Rungta. “Now for the bedside delivery facility to start, we are waiting for the final list to be approved, so that planning may begin,” he said.