No Remdesivir in 19 new hosps, black mkt comes to rescue of patients

KANPUR: The district administration has not provided Remdesivir injection in all the 19 new Covid hospitals here, while it has prohibited the sale from the counters of medical stores as a part of a new arrangement.

ADM City Kanpur Atul Kumar has been tasked to coordinate the supply of injections to Covid hospitals. But the officials silently admit that Kumar has failed in his responsibility and stays off the radar keeping his official cell phone switched off. He was not available for his comment repeated calls.

As a result, the people are buying the injections in the black market, paying 70,000 per injection. Manjit Singh, 70, is admitted to Kanpur Medical Centre Lajpat Nagar. He has lost his son and another close relative to corona.

Now he is battling the virus. Doctors prescribed Remdesivir as his oxygen level was dropping and they deemed him critical. His grand-daughter Simran Singh approached everyone for the injection, including district magistrate Alok Tiwari.

She was told the hospital had the vials but the hospital claimed it was not in possession of a single unit, she said. “We got some vials for 70,000 each from the black market and the first unit is being administered,” she said.

Similarly, Mitushi whose father Atul Matlani needed this injection at Grace hospital in Sharda Nagar, met all sorts of hardships. The only child of her parents, with the help of her few friends, went in quest of Remdesivir.

“I was told by officials six units were provided to the hospital, but the hospital manager gave me the letter he sent to the district magistrate saying not one unit of Remdesivir was given,” she said. The hospital manager Rohan Kumar confirmed the letter and content busting the claim of Kanpur administration.

Mitushi said with no option she tried in the gray market and managed some vials for Rs 35,000 each. “I am not giving the location. At least they are giving the injections to people like me trying to save our loved ones,” she said. Ahmad Umair’s close relative was also prescribed the injection.For 24 hours, he kept going from integrated command centre to ADM city’s office for one unit. “I tried till 3.30 in the morning; my brother died an hour later. He could have been saved had I got the injection,” he said.

As the number of critical patients surge, the doctors are extensively writing for this injection in the Covid hospitals, both government and private. In LLR hospital the stock was quickly depleted, and vials were arranged from other sources, said a senior doctor. When contacted, DM Kanpur was not available for his comment. However he maintained in informal interaction with reporters on Tuesday that best possible efforts were on to provide relief.