1Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Government Medical College, Thrissur-680596, Kerala, India
2Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Thrissur-680596, Kerala, India
3Professor and Dean (Research), Kerala University of Health Sciences, Thrissur-680596, Kerala, India
*Email id: dr.kuhs@gmail.com
Online published on 7 December, 2013.
Affordability and availability of essential drugs are key elements for an efficient health care. There is no study from Kerala related to this area. The objectives were to compare the central purchase price (CPP) and open market price (OMP) and to find the availability of life-saving essential medicines (LSEMs) and priority essential medicines (PEMs) in a tertiary care hospital.
The lists of LSEMs and PEMs were made qualitatively based on operational definition. Data were collected from 2004 to 2009 from the hospital records of Government Medical College, Thrissur, and surrounding retail shops. Prices were compared between the CPP and OMP.
LSEMs had 20 medicines and PEMs had 28 medicines. OMP of LSEMs and PEMs were high compared to CPP. The prices hiked every year affecting both CPP and OMP, but CPP remained at lower level. All LSEMs and PEMs were not available on any day studied. The availability of maximum number of these medicines on any single day varied from 7 to 14 for (20) LSEMs and 12 to 20 for (28) PEMs. There were days of zero availability of medicines belonging to both categories.
CPP of medicines was lower compared to the OMP. The price increase was lesser for CPP compared to OMP. The availability of both LSEM and PEM in the hospital was alarmingly low. Having a LSEM and PEM lists within the essential medicine list is preferable. Inclusion of profit sealing at wholesale and retail level while deciding the mark up for selling price of medicines is proposed.
Medicines, essential, price, availability, procurement, policy
