SHILLONG, SEPT 21: State Health Minister Roshan Warjri inaugurated the first Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (AMRIT) pharmacy set up in the state at the Shillong Civil Hospital premises here on Thursday.
The AMRIT pharmacy – which aims to provide affordable medicines for treatment of cancer, cardio vascular and other diseases at various discounts – will also be set up at 10 other major hospitals in the different districts, Warjri said while delivering her inaugural address.
Dedicated it to the people of the state, the minister said, “The setting up of these pharmacies will to a great extent help patients of cancer, heart and other diseases, in the different districts to take advantage of this offer.”
She said that the project was decided after an in-depth discussion between the state government and Ministry of Health taking into consideration the data on the number of cancer patients especially those from economically weak background.
“Such patients are found to be facing difficulties to complete the courses of treatment,” Warjri said while expressing her gratitude to the Government of India.
Besides facilitating access to medicines at an affordable rate, she said the pharmacy will also be opened to the public at large who wish to avail this facility adding the medicines provided will be of good quality.
Interestingly, the minister also announced that the AMRIT pharmacy will also be linked to the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) to provide medicines to beneficiaries free of cost.
Additional chief secretary in-charge health department PW Ingty in his speech said that the sale of medicines under the scheme at highly subsidized rate will be a boon for the patients who are undergoing treatment especially cancer & heart diseases.
On the other hand, Secretary of Health and Family Welfare cum Mission Director, National Health Mission (NHM) HM Shangpliang informed that the AMRIT is a noval initiative launched by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
The union ministry has nominated HLL Lifecare Ltd as the implementing agency of the scheme after seeing its impressive track record of carrying out pharmacy service in various parts of the country.
The first AMRIT outlet was opened at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi on November 2015. As of date there are currently 84 AMRIT pharmacies and AMRIT, Shillong is the 85th store, he said.
Shangpliang also informed that as on July 31, this year a total of 30.68 lakh patients have benefitted from AMRIT pharmacies and saved Rs 164.10 crores from AMRIT stores thereby reducing their out of pocket expenditure.
In order to take this initiative forward to benefit millions of Indians in other parts of the country, he said AMRIT has been proposed to expand to another 300 hospitals across the country.
These include 10 in Meghalaya, 16 in Assam, 2 in Punjab and 1 Shimla.
By Our Reporter
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