Adilabad: Shortage of Amlodipine at govt hospital pushes patients to costly private medical shops

Hyderabad: Sai Surya Banoth, a resident of Utnoor in Adilabad district, has been facing a tough time for the last two months due to a shortage of Amlodipine 5 MG tablets for his father. As a result, Surya was forced to buy the medicines from a private medical shop.

Though the issue was brought to the notice of the State Government hospital authorities, they cited that a lack of supply from the government and the health department was the major reason for the delay in the supply of medicine to the patients.

Amlodipine sold for Rs 76 in private medical shops

Speaking to the NewsMeter, Sai Surya said that his father was an attender at ITDA and had been using Amlodipine 5 MG tablets for the last two years. Since March, the medicine has been available at the Government Hospital in Utnoor. However, from April the medicine was unavailable at the pharmacy in the hospital forcing the patients to purchase it from private medical shops, he said.

The medicine is not available in other government pharmacies in Utnoor, apart from the Government Hospital.

“Each strip of Amlodipine 5 MG has 30 tablets and it is sold for Rs 76 in the private medical shops. I have been able to purchase the medicine for my father from the private medical shops for the last two months, but what about the position of those especially tribals who cannot afford all the time to purchase it from private medical shops,” said Sai Surya and appealed to the government and health department to ensure the supply of the medicine at the government hospital pharmacies at the earliest.

Emergency drugs also not available, says Utnoor Government Hospital doctor

After Sai Surya highlighted the issue on his X (formerly Twitter), Dr Upendra of Utnoor Government Hospital reacted to his concern.

He admitted that the Amlodipine 5 MG tablets were not available in the hospital.

Not only Utnoor, but the entire Telangana is facing a shortage of medicine and the district collector has served a memo to the drug stores. Not only Amlodipine 5 MG tablets, emergency drugs are also not available in the pharmacies and to avoid inconvenience for the patients they are being procured from outside, he said, and added that the drug would be made available shortly at the government hospital.