Hospitals face shortages after Delhi's procurement halt following ₹650 crore scam. Warehouse damage and local purchase reliance raise risks. Government reviews contracts.
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The alleged ₹650 crore scam in Delhi's Central Procurement Agency has brought the city's government healthcare procurement to a halt. Hospitals are running short of medicines, surgical consumables, and equipment.
The Delhi government temporarily stopped CPA procurement and ordered cancellation of all pending tenders not yet finalised. No fresh tenders are being issued. Government hospitals now depend on local purchases to meet immediate needs.
Local purchases cannot compensate for a centralised procurement system, doctors and hospital officials said. Items such as antibiotics, injections, saline, gloves, cotton, and bandages have at times been unavailable. Hospitals have borrowed supplies from other departments, used substitutes, or asked patients to buy from private pharmacies.
The CPA is the nodal agency for procurement of medicines, consumables, and medical equipment for Delhi government hospitals, Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, and dispensaries. The disruption has affected supplies across the government healthcare network, doctors and officials said.
A senior doctor at a Delhi government hospital said his department had been unable to obtain consumables and equipment despite repeatedly placing demands.
“Because of the investigation around the scam, everything has halted and no work is happening: no procurement of equipment, consumables. Some medicines have arrived but only for a short duration and then medicines will be procured at a higher rate under local purchase,” he said.
A senior state health department official said the procurement crisis had disrupted the healthcare system. Medicines purchased through the CPA are now at risk of being damaged.
“The warehouse is damp and because of the rain many boxes have been ruined which have expensive medicines. This will also lead to the quality of medicines getting affected,” he said.
The disruption comes even as supplies already procured through tenders are under scrutiny. A committee constituted by the Directorate General of Health Services to prepare an inventory of medicines, surgical items, linen, and medical equipment at the Central Drug Store flagged serious storage and maintenance deficiencies.
In a letter to the DGHS, Chief District Medical Officer (East) Dr Sandeep Gautam said the committee faced several constraints during physical verification, making it “extremely difficult” to prepare an accurate inventory.
Linen, which constitutes a major portion of the stock, was found in “highly disorganised, mixed, damp and dust-laden conditions” at different locations. Without proper segregation, coding, and category-wise stacking, the committee said it was “practically impossible” to identify, classify, and count the items accurately.
Medicines requiring cold storage were found kept at room temperature, both inside and outside the main store.
The government’s August 6 order came after Health Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh issued a show-cause notice to the health and family welfare secretary over the alleged failure to comply with directions to submit an action plan for pending procurement of medicines, consumables, and medical equipment.
The order also calls for a review of existing valid rate contracts and concluded procurement contracts for possible illegality or procedural lapses.
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