“My father needs at least eight salines each day, the hospital is not supplying a single one. We have to buy them from the pharmacies outside the hospital at double or three times the actual price.”
These were the words of Safura Begum, whose father had been admitted to Jessore General Hospital after a critical surgery.
This is a common situation in Jessore now. A scarcity of salines has emerged in the district's upazila health complexes and hospitals.
Patients and their families, including those admitted to Jessore General Hospital, are compelled to buy these salines at prices two to three times higher than the standard rates.
The salines, typically priced at Tk92-95, are now being sold for Tk250-300 -- creating a difficult situation for patients.
Medicine sellers in the district say that some companies including Opsosaline, Orion Pharma, Libra Infusions LTD, Popular, Acme, Beximco, and Square Pharmaceuticals supply injectable saline. But for the last three months, the companies have not been providing saline as per the demand.
Three senior staff nurses of Jessore General Hospital, requesting anonymity, said that for the past two months, patients in various wards such as dengue, medicine, gynecology, cholera, and surgery have not received the required saline supply.
In the case of dengue wards, only normal saline is being provided, and cholera wards receive food saline. Hence, the families of many poor patients are facing challenges in purchasing saline from external sources, they noted.
Resident Medical Officer (RMO) of the Jessore General Hospital, Dr Partha Pratim Chakraborty, said: “We admit an average of 300-350 patients daily, and a majority of them require saline."
On the saline crisis, he said: "There is a crisis. But we are trying to manage with the saline that is available at the hospital.”
Faruk Ahmed, owner of Tuhin Medical Pharmacy in Jessore city, said: "Soon after the spread of dengue, the supply of saline to the pharmacies has almost stopped. As a result, there is a shortage of saline in all pharmacies.”
When asked about the reason for the shortage in saline supply, Beximco Pharmaceutical Company's Jessore Medical Promotion Officer Md Bijoy Hossain said: "Three months before the dengue outbreak in the country, the company used to supply 2,000-3,000 salines a day. Now they don't supply more than 500 bags. As a result, we can't them supply to all pharmacies. Senior company officials are well aware of the matter.”
He added that he did not know why the salines were being priced so high. "We are maintaining the previous pricing; there has been no increase in the cost. However, due to high demand and limited supply, it appears that pharmacies are charging more."
Recently, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said that some 700,000 bags of saline will be imported to address the shortage caused by the rising dengue cases in the country.
