IMPHAL, February 18: The Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE) has claimed that despite of the government providing ‘Naloxone’ medicine for overdose management free of cost at government health care institutes, the health care providers in government health institutions are asking the patients to get the medicine from pharmacies instead of providing them.
Speaking at a press conference held today at the Manipur Press Club today, CoNE president RK Nalinikanta said that in some cases, the health care providers do provide free supply of Naloxone but demand the patient party to replace the used dose.
He condemned the attitude of the health care providers who think of extorting money by directing patients to buy the medicine offered for free by the government.
These acts should be considered dangerous and as a social evil, he held.
He continued the said medicine which costs only Rs 75 to Rs 117 per vial is sold through the back door in some medical store at the rate of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000.
Nalinikanta appealed to the concerned authorities to consider the problems of the patients and to look into the matter at the earliest so that Naloxone is made accessible free of cost to the patients.
Naloxone is already included in the list of essential medicines formulated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare considering the importance of the medicine in saving the life of an individual, he said.
The medicine should be made affordable and easily accessible to the needy patients, moreover, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare secretary had also directed the principal secretary of Health and Family Welfare, government of Manipur on December 2, 2014 to avail Naloxone free of cost in all health care institutes in the State, he claimed.
He highlighted that the CoNE had also been pushing the concerned authority in this regard and as a result a State Level Consultative meet was held under the joint aegis of State Health department, National Health Mission, Manipur State AIDS Control Society and CoNE on January 28, 2015.
He said during the said meeting, it was resolved that Naloxone should be provide free of cost in government settings following which the medicine was made available in 23 government health care settings since November 2015.
However, on December 13, CoNE received a complaint that a patient was deprived of the facility at RIMS and in another incident, a patient complained of being administered two vials of Naloxone on December 13, 2015 but later told by the hospital authority to replace the vials, he claimed.
Nalinikanta continued that in this regard CoNE representatives had met the authorities concerned on January 12 at the conference hall of MACS and during the meeting it was resolved to curb all such problems in the future.
He questioned the rationality of not availing Naloxone for free. He said this could be a clear case of discrimination towards people using drugs by the health care providers or lack of communication between the staff of the institutes.