Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi on Sunday directed the heads of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) to take urgent steps to ensure fast-track availability of the anti-rabies vaccines in the government hospitals of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and remove all bureaucratic bottlenecks in this regard.
It may be recalled that in response to a public complaint received recently in his office, he took serious notice of the non-availability of this essential vaccine in Islamabad’s Government hospitals and summoned the senior officials of both these organizations on January 09, 2024, to unearth the root cause of the situation. He had also directed the DRAP to conduct a thorough probe as to why the NIH was not manufacturing this essential vaccine.
As a follow-up measure, the office of Wafaqi Mohtasib immediately notified both organizations, i.e., NIH and DARP, and the Registrar of the Wafaqi Mohtasib initiated a probe into the matter. It was revealed that apart from lengthy official procedures, bureaucratic delays, gross negligence, mismanagement, and dollar rate fluctuation resulted in this unfortunate situation. He has directed that responsibility may be fixed for the shortage of this essential vaccine, and necessary steps may be initiated to avoid such incidents in the future.
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