Jan Aushadhi Kendra closuresparks Centre-Karnataka turf war
Replying to a question from Belagavi BJP MP and former CM Jagadish Shettar, Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers Anupriya Patel said last week that the Centre had written to the state govt in response to the decision to close down the JAKs.
Patel said the Centre urged the state govt to reconsider its decision as the generic drugs distribution network had close to 1,500 shops in the state that accounted for a turnover of Rs 5,700 crore.
It reasoned that the JAKs, meant for the poor, needed to be kept open for patients coming to state-run hospitals for treatment.
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However, the state govt claimed this was an administrative decision, keeping in mind the possibility of black-marketeering or non-sale of state govt-procured medicines at the govt hospitals.
"There have been routine complaints to the health department that the medications prescribed by our hospital doctors are made unavailable in our in-house pharmacy and patients are redirected to JAKs to procure the same in generic forms," said a senior health department official.
According to the state govt, yet another complaint is that JAKs were in fact selling branded medications while they should only be selling generic ones. This has been confirmed by the food safety and drug administration unit, the health department claimed.
According to the department officials, the closure of JAKs is restricted to only 80-85 of these centres, with the remaining 1,400 JAKs being up and running in the state.
In fact, the state govt has even decided to close its own additional pharmacy units called Janata Bazaar on hospital premises. There are 15 of them in the state.
Speaking to TOI, health secretary Harsh Gupta, while admitting the department is in possession of the central govt letter, said it is yet to discuss the content with minister Dinesh Gundu Rao. "We will have a detailed discussion on the issue with the minister and then take an informed decision," he said.
Rao was unavailable for comments.
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Quote
There have been routine complaints to the health department that the medications prescribed by our hospital doctors are made unavailable in our in-house pharmacy and patients are redirected to JAKs to procure the same in generic forms
-senior health department official
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