Govt proposes free supply of essential drugs

"The government proposes to start an initiative for free supply of essential medicines in public health facilities in the country aiming to provide affordable health care to the people by reducing out of pocket expenses on medicines," Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said told Rajya Sabha today.

In written reply, he said the drugs would be supplied by district warehouses through an IT-enabled supply chain managements system.

"The initiative will be part of the 12th Plan Proposal. There is an initial provision of Rs 100 crore in the budget of 2012-13," Azad said.

To a question on prevalence of tuberculosis, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Sudip Bandyopadhyay said, "The estimated prevalence of all forms of TB has declined from 586 per 1,00,000 population in 1990 to 249 per 1,00,000 as per Global TB Control Report published by WHO."

So far as TB prevalence is concerned, India ranks 15th from the bottom among the 22 high burden countries arranged from descending order, Bandyopadhyay said.