The Maharashtra Medical Goods procurement Authority Act 2023 was passed on Friday with an aim of streamlining the process of procurement of medical devices in public-run medical colleges and hospitals. This makes the state the first in the country to put in place such an Act, which will mean creating a dedicated branch that will solely focus on medical device procurement and will guarantee single-point procurement of all medical devices, equipment, supplies, and associated products.
This will also help in speeding up the procurement and supply system of specific medical items and will bring in much needed transparency into the system. Back in 2017, the government established a purchase cell at the Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceuticals Corporation Ltd., aiming to take advantage of minimum rates for bulk purchases of medical supplies. Accordingly, it was mandatory for all government departments that offer medical services to purchase medications, medical supplies, and other associated products from this company.
This will greatly ease red-tapism and establish efficiency because the numbers are huge - the medical education and the public health departments both together reportedly spends around Rs 2,000 crore annually for the purchase of medical supplies. As per this new law, the procurement agency will be led by an IAS officer and will be overseen by the Chief Minister, along with ministers from the departments of public health and medical education in Maharashtra and domain experts from diverse fields including IT and engineering, biomedical sciences and more.
Up until now, the process has reportedly been cumbersome and long. The tendering process itself takes over two years and government colleges have to wait that long to procure medical equipment, thereby hampering not just the learning inside a medical college but also the care extended to patients. So far, Haffkine, which has been purchasing for all state medical colleges, hospitals and health centres, lacks manpower and expertise.
Those at the helm of drafting the new law are Dr Gauri Rathod and Dr Umesh Shirodkar from the Directorate of Health Services in Maharashtra and the secretary of the public health department, Navin Sona, all of who have played a key role in ensuring that the procurement department takes over the job of purchasing from Haffkine in the coming months so as to make availability and accessibility of key medical supplies easier and all purchases centralised under one roof.
Maharashtra Health Minister Tanaji Sawant reportedly said that the decision to set up an independent authority will strengthen and accelerate the procurement and supply system for health institutions under state government and certain other health institutions, making the availability of medicines easier, more transparent, fair and affordable to common people.
The items to be procured will be collectively approved and procured as per the availability of funds. “It will cost the state exchequer over Rs 65 crore to set up this authority,” informed Sawant. The All India Food and Drug License Association, reportedly welcomed the decision, stating that this step will help them streamline processes. "It will help us have a single point of procurement of certain medicines, medical consumables, devices, equipment and execute with highest standards of quality," said Abhay Pande, president of AIFDLA.
