Lucknow: Attendants of patients at KGMU may soon be spared the daily struggle of standing in long queues for medicines, as the hospital plans to deliver drugs directly to patients’ beds through the Hospital Revolving Fund (HRF).Attendants often spend hours outside HRF counters to purchase medicines and the delay sometimes affects timely treatment.On Tuesday, KGMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Sonia Nityanand said, “The proposed facility will ensure treatment is not delayed and the system is expected to be in place within six months.”Doctors in ward will prescribe medicines and staff will place order online at HRF for each patient. A medicine packet prepared at the HRF will be delivered to the ward by Medi Mitra staff and payment will be deducted directly from the patient’s account.The university will adopt a hospital information system in which each patient will have a unique ID-based account. Paid patients will deposit an amount and expenses on medicines and investigations will be deducted from it. For patients covered under govt schemes, the university will deposit the amount in the account.Demand for HRF medicines increased sharply in recent years as more patients opted for cheaper drugs. According to Prof Nityanand, availability of medicines at HRF had improved from 20–30% earlier to nearly 80%.She added that 4,100 OPD patients purchase medicines from HRF daily, compared to 2,500 earlier. The medicines are available at 30–70% lower prices than market.On functioning of HRF, the KGMU VC said medicine sales increased from Rs 111 crore in financial year 2023–24 to Rs 185 crore in 2024–25 and reached Rs 256 crore in 2025–26, registering nearly 125% growth in 2 years. Currently, medicines worth around Rs 25 crore are sold every month, compared to Rs 8–9 crore earlier.
