Drugs worth Rs 96 cr supplied to various Govt health institutions in 2018-19: MD JKMSCL
JAMMU, APRIL 30: In an official communication received from the office of Managing Director, Jammu Kashmir Medical Supplies Corporation Limited (JKMSCL), the office has rebutted the news item published in a section of press regarding delay in procurement of drugs and medicines.
It was informed that JKMSCL has in the last year (2018-19) made supplies of drugs and medicines worth Rs 96 crore to various health institutions of the state.
JKMSCL has at present the rate contract available for 949 drugs including suture material, disposable items and also rate contract is available for 154 machine equipments including hospital furniture items, he said.
As per budgetary distribution, JKMSCL is supposed to place purchase orders for 75 percent of total budget and 25 percent are made available with HOD’s only to meet the emergencies in the hospital. In case JKMSCL is not able to finalize any item due to poor response in tendering, NOC for the same item is being issued.
Although 75 percent of the total budget for procurement of drugs is earmarked for JKMSCL, considerable delay has been witnessed in the past years in timely processing of legitimate claims of the bona fide suppliers of drugs due to erratic funding pattern in JKMSCL. However, due to intervention of the higher authorities, funding pattern has been streamlined from the current financial year which would prove as a short in the arm in JKMSCL’s endeavor to provide quality medicines at competitive rates in a time bound manner to the health institutions of d state.
JKMSCL is undertaking e-procurement of Drugs & Machinery through open tendering in a fair & transparent manner through registered vendors. However, to further encourage fair competition & in its endeavor to garner competitive prices, JKMSCL has dispensed away with mandatory registration in order to maximize competition & ensure competitive rates without compromising on the quality of drugs & prospective bidders through an inherent system of checks and balances in the SBD.
Online Supply Chain Management Software which monitors procurement & distribution of drugs on an online platform has been strengthened by effectively highlighting the numerous advantages of such system & chalking out training schedules in this Regard for the end users to ensure that a robust & effective online system is put in place which would ensure timely placement of demand for drugs of health institutions of d state & their consequent distribution in sync with such demand.
Further, in order to prioritize procurement of only essential drugs in consonance with the available budget, essential drug list is being pruned from the existing number of 850 odd drugs to 300 in toto which would ensure focused attention on procurement of essential drugs in parity with available budget.
