KMC: Private hospitals non-committal in operating own pharmacy

Kathmandu: The private hospitals are found non-committal to the directive of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) requiring them to run their pharmacy.

The KMC issued this directive to all the 52 private hospitals operating under its jurisdiction on June 5. Officiating Chief of KMC Health Department, Sajina Maharjan, said that none of the hospitals has contacted the Department so far informing it of abiding by the directive. She said that some private hospitals have stated that they would operate their pharmacies from next Saun, citing that the deadline given by KMC was too short.

The KMC believes that the patients will get the appropriate medicines at a reasonable price and the indigent citizens will be able to get medicines at an affordable cost when hospitals operate their pharmacies from the hospital premises. It is said that only 16 of the 52 private hospitals are running their pharmacy.

Similarly, 28 hospitals are running the hospital and pharmacy in the name of separate individuals while the rest have not at all operated their pharmacies. KMC had given 15-day deadline to the private hospitals to implement the directive.

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