Doctors’ shortage: pharmacists in Odisha hospitals allowed to prescribe drugs for some ailments
The Hindu
Pharmacists cannot prescribe drugs which are not available in Niramaya — a free drug supply scheme.
In a bid to overcome difficult situations due to the , the Odisha government has allowed pharmacists to dispense drugs to patients for 12 diseases.
“Many of the single doctor hospitals in the State are managed by the pharmacists in absence of doctors due to some reason or other. It is difficult to manage the said hospitals without any specific government orders entrusting the pharmacists for treatment of patients and list of ailments to be treated by them,” said the Department of Health and Family Welfare in a communication.
It said, “in order to overcome the difficulties, the government after careful consideration has been pleased to decide that in partial modification to earlier department order, the pharmacists are entrusted to dispense the drugs for ailments for treatment in absence of doctors.”
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.