Jan Aushadhi Kendras along the western suburbs are reporting a slew of operational problems with regards to stock, supply and acceptance. Our reporter spoke to the Jan Aushadhi Kendras across the suburbs to understand their problems.

Medicircle met several owners across western suburbs who had different point of anguishes. According to Mr Tiwari, who runs Jan Aushadhi Kendra at Dahisar; the main problem lies with doctors, who are not prescribing generic medicine even for poor patients. This leads to trust issues while chemist tries to convert patients to generic drugs. Still today, most patients insist on the brand names written by the doctor on the prescription. While educating consumers about generic medicines remains a major challenge, supplies are also irregular.

Another significant glitch was pointed out by Mr Anil, owner Jan Aushadhi Kendra Vasai; stocks of serious drugs for Diabetics and Heart patients are always out of stock resulting in low-profit margin. Coupled with low sales figures survival will soon become a challenge. There is also an element of confusion hounding the pricing system when these kendras are compelled to sell generic medicines from private companies. As generic drugs from private companies are priced more than the government ones, this leads to different pricing for the same products. Online ordering system is also proving to be a pain for most of the kendras, empty shelves leads to lack of patient confidence and drop in repeat customers.

In short Jan Aushadhi Kendras from Malad to Virar, are struggling against government apathy, acceptance from doctors/patients and short supply of essential as well daily drugs. After our extensive meetings with retailers, we figured out they are expecting the government to solve the stock issues and promote generic drugs in lines of Pulse Polio campaign. We at Medicircle think sensitizing the doctors and improving the generic medicines in terms of packaging and branding will also go a long way in creating patient confidence on the generic drugs.

Right now there is a problem with acceptance due to poor presentation and storage, in addition to prevailing ones.