JAIPUR: Chief minister Ashok Gehlot ’s flagship free medicine scheme secured the top position in the country in the ranking issued by the National Health Mission (NHM).

NHM mission director Manoj Jhalani has issued a letter to health department informing that the state is ranked 1st in 16 states of the country in implementation of free medicine scheme in June.

The NHM assessed the performance of the states on the basis of effective implementation of Drugs and Vaccine Distribution Management System (DVDMS), stock of essential drugs, value of drugs about to expire along with other such parameters, which are 10 in total. In the state, the scheme was launched on October 2, 2011.

The NHM has initiated giving rankings as it is encouraging and supporting states to provide free drugs to patients coming to public health facilities. NHM —free drug service initiative has been implemented by ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) under which states/UTs are being supported under NHM to provide free drugs to patients coming to public health facilities.

The initiative was taken aiming to reduce out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) and improve footfalls in public facilities.

However, the health department claimed that they are constantly improving the existing free medicine scheme. “We have added 104 new medicines in the list of drugs under free medicines scheme. Earlier, there were 608 medicines, which have increased to 712,” said Raghu Sharma, health minister.

He said that they have added more medicines as they had promised in the election manifesto to strengthen the free medicine scheme.

He said that new medicines had been added as they are useful in the treatment of cancer, heart and kidney patients.

