Congress MP Urmila Demands End to Essential Cancer Drug Shortage

Kathmandu. Nepali Congress Member of Parliament Sita Thapaliya Urmila has demanded that the government immediately end the shortage of essential medicines used by cancer patients. Speaking during an emergency session of the House of Representatives, Thapaliya stated that patients' lives are at risk due to the unavailability of medicines like Cisplatin and Carboplatin used in chemotherapy against cancer. 

Thapaliya said that although Health Minister Nisha Mehta had inspected the Department of Drug Management some time ago and instructed to ease the supply, its effect has not been seen. 'It was said that the minister inspected and gave instructions, but even today patients are not getting the medicine,' Thapaliya said, 'Just yesterday, patients who went to Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital for chemotherapy sought my help because they couldn't get the medicine. Where did the minister's instructions go?'

MP Thapaliya asked the Health Minister questions such as: In which hospitals or drug centers in Nepal is Cisplatin currently available? To immediately publish a list for the information of patients and families, what is the government's immediate and long-term plan to prevent the shortage of such essential medicines from recurring in the future? And where has the permit process for the companies inspected by the minister reached, and when will the supply of medicines in the market become easier?

She urged the minister not to just give instructions but to monitor whether the medicines have reached the hands of the patients.