The Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department (P&SHD), on Friday, has strongly rejected a story published in a local daily, dated 11-Dec-20 titled as “Vital medicine for heart patients short in market”.
In reference to the published news story, spokesperson of Health on behalf of Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department & Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education stated that shortage of the Glyceryl Trinitrate (Sublingual) 0.5mg tablet has not been observed during the current year. The said matter was highlighted earlier on November 21 on the basis of public complaints and subsequently an internal inquiry was conducted. It was found in the inquiry report that there was no acute shortage of said tablet in the market or any public sector hospitals across Punjab, running under the administrative control of P&SHD, contrary to a news story published in “The Dawn”. The task was assigned to Chief Drug Controller, Punjab for determining the status of the Glyceryl Trinitrate (Sublingual) 0.5mg Tablet at distributors and point of sales from all over Punjab. Chief Drug Controller Punjab in his report revealed that there was a disruption in the supply/import of the raw material of the said drug during July due to COVID-19 pandemic but it never resulted in shortage of medicine as enough supply was available. “Currently, there is a sufficient quantity of Tab Angised (0.5mg) stocked at the main warehouses of manufacturing company’, CDC reported. Spokesperson P&SHD has further said that all districts administrators of both health departments were given instructions on December 11 to ensure presence of sufficient supplies of Glyceryl Trinitrate (0.5MG) tablet throughout the province. In reply to instruction, health facilities reported 70,367 tablets in the stock.
Spokesperson shared the details of available stock of Glyceryl Trinitrate tablet in 36 districts of Punjab. According to the detail Attock has 475 packs, Bahawalnagar 977, Bahawalpur 272, Bhakkar 440, Chakwal 2664, Chiniot 195, DG Khan 330, Faisalabad 1114, Gujranwala 230, Gujarat 1505, Hafizabad 180, Jhang 3665, Jhelum 2295, Kasur 3950, Khanewal 3187, Khushab 4060, Lahore 500, Layyah 576, Lodhran 3464, Mandi Bahuddin 515, Mianwali 6020, Multan 310, Muzaffargarh 4330, Nankana 300, Narowal 2410, Okara 2090, Pakpattan 6608, Rahim Yar Khan 1700, Rajanpur 250, Rawalpindi 2105, Sahiwal 130, Toba Tak Singh 1248, Vehari 1606, Sheikhupura 26, Sialkot 490 and Sargodha 10150.
Spokesperson further said that the story in question suggested that there was a shortage of Glyceryl Trinitrate in the six government cardiac institutions of Punjab which are under the administrative control of SHC&ME Department. The authorities of the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department revealed that there was no shortage of this tablet reported in these hospitals, as implied in the story.
Hafiz Qaiser Abbas
Lahore
