Govt grants power to DHQs for medicine, equipment purchase

Kamal also urged officials to ensure the purchase of quality products and equipment for the DHQs

QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani on Saturday approved changes in the purchase of medicines and health equipment by government hospitals, ending centralisation and empowering the province’s district hospitals to carry out the exercise instead of obtaining approval for the purchase from the provincial Health Department. The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by the chief minister.

“Previous exercises have caused money to be wasted while District Headquarters Hospitals (DHQs) have remained deprived of medicines and other health facilities. But the current government’s decision will ensure the availability of medicines and health equipment in the remote districts of Balochistan,” Kamal said in his address to the meeting. He also urged officials to ensure the purchase of quality products and equipment for the DHQs.

The meeting was informed that medicines could not be purchased for DHQs during 2018-19 but that the Health Department re-tendered and ordered the purchase following International Medicine Statistics and the Drugs Regulatory Authority.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2020.