Smaller private hospitals and nursing homes in Calcutta are not abiding by the government’s directive on prescribing remdesivir and tocilizumab for Covid, resulting in scarcity of the drugs, health department officials have said.

Many healthcare institutions are not following the protocol that discourages hospitals from rampantly prescribing the drugs to treat Covid. The protocol includes a guideline on how to procure the medicines through proper channels, they said.

“At many hospitals, especially in small private hospitals, these drugs are rampantly prescribed in violation of the protocol issued by the health department. There is a general tendency to overuse the medicines. Some doctors do not take into consideration the side-effects, which in many cases may prove fatal for the patients. Since these drugs are very costly, people tend to believe they are the best and run after them,” said Ajay Chakraborty, Bengal’s director of health services.

“To address this, we have issued a protocol on the use and indications. The protocol is mentioned on the website…. There is also an advisory on how to get the drugs to avoid blackmarketing.”

A state government directive issued on May 3 states that medicine companies and vendors can only sell remdesivir and tocilizumab to hospitals treating Covid patients. The volume of sale depends on the ICU bed strength and occupancy of the hospitals.

An April 24 directive states that only 10 to 20 per cent of all Covid patients need remdesivir and no hospital or nursing home should unnecessarily prescribe the drug. And if the drug is prescribed, it will be the responsibility of the hospital concerned to arrange it.

“Violating this rule, many small hospitals and nursing homes are prescribing remdesivir even when there is no need for it and asking patients’ families to procure the drug themselves. Thus families are forced to buy the medicine at a premium. Some are even shelling out 10 times the actual price,” another health department official said.

Calcutta police on Thursday had arrested three men for allegedly stocking and selling remdesivir vials. Altogether 132 vials were seized, of which one was to be sold to a family for Rs 25,000, almost 10 times the actual price.

Calcutta police on Thursday had published a helpline number (9874909640) and an email ID (jtcpcrime@kolkatapolice.gov.in) to report frauds related to the supply of oxygen, medicines, plasma and hospital beds.