Dr Anantha K Ramdas
Regular readers of City Kemp may have come to know about the establishment of Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi medical shops in the country and how these outlets sell various medicines at affordable prices to the public.
This is a boon for the common man with a limited purse, who is already burdened with high cost of living. And, from time to time, newspaper reports show how the patients are treated at well established hospitals and clinics and how badly they are treated ! Very often we read hospitals demanding huge sums of money before the patient’s body can be handed over to the kith and kin.
In his recent radio talk on the Mann Ki Baat programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of the service being rendered by these Jan Aushadhi Kendras. Even though a large majority of the office-goers are covered by company sponsored medical insurance, and other medical facilities, very often, one has to go to Medical stores to buy their needs. In fact, for some common sicknesses like blood pressure, diabetes etc, human tendency being what it is, we take the old prescriptions and buy our needs, without taking the precaution of consulting a physician if the same “quantum” of medications be “continued” or if there is any change!
We take a look at our own State of Karnataka. These Jan Aushadhi medical stores are slowly coming up in the State. This is the situation with the rest of India too. In case of the capital city of namma Bengaluru, which has a growing population and hovering around the magical one million mark, there are only a few Jan Aushadhis in operation. These are insufficient and demands have been made for opening more such outlets.
There are two factors that we must bear in mind. First, doctors tend to prescribe branded medicines which are expensive. Apart from convenience, medical shops, which are “in house”, and most located in the hospitals and clinics, or conveniently near these establishments, charge high rates; they do get normal discounts but when the patients’ relatives (kith and kin) go to buy the medicines in the prescription, and deliver them to the waiting doctors, the mark up is enormous! This should be avoided as far as possible, but when needs arise, these are bought and used, and billed to the patient’s account!
Second aspect that one needs to know, and demand, is that the generic names of the medications have to be written when prescriptions are given. This is not being uniformly followed, and no enforcement agency takes care to ensure that this is done. So, the very purpose of Jan Aushadhi set up by the Government is to make these generic medicines at affordable prices.
Let’s take a look at the Jan Aushadhi kendras set up in this garden city. There are just six such shops in the city; for easy reference, these are:
Jan Aushadhi Kendra (Phone 098806 97504)
Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra (080 2662 3232)
Jan Aushadhi Store (080 2226 4021)
Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra (098866 26133)
Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra (081971 78999) and
Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Kendra located in Cauvery Block A-2
National Games Village, Koramangala (Phones 7676777131/ 8453584535)
For those residing in Koramangala, this is actually a boon and they have reasonably good supplies of various regularly consumed medications in the store, with special reference to Blood pressure and
Diabetes. The prices, as compared to “branded” medications, are absolutely cheap and competitive.
In case of any medication that is not readily available, one may place the orders so that the same can be obtained and supplied. One may contact other Kendras in different localities as, sometimes, what is not available with your regular supplier may be obtained from elsewhere!
City Kemp would like to provide such information to its readers so that they can benefit. The Editor would welcome readers’ comments and suggestions. email: [email protected]
