Assam government has launched anew scheme under which locally unavailable medicines due to the lockdown shall be delivered to patients at home, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.Medicines below Rs 200 will be provided to free to patients, he said.Health workers will deliver medicines for patients who cannot acquire it locally under the new 'Dhanwantari' initiative of the health department, the minister said at a press conference here."We will ensure that the Multipurpose Health Workers (MPWs) and ASHA workers deliver the medicines to the patients at their homes if these are not available within their radius of 10 km", he said.The patients can send their prescriptions over the telephone or inform the health workers and the health department will ensure that it is delivered to them even if it is not in the list of available free medicines."The patients will not be charged if it is less than Rs 200 but if it is more than that, it will be charged", he said.The department may consider waiving it off in case of people who cannot afford it and they will have to apply to the National Health Mission (NHM), Sarma added.He also thanked the police department for its humanitarian contribution of reaching medicines to 4,800 people so far during the lockdown.Meanwhile, the state government has so far disbursed over Rs 37 lakh to 49 people stranded abroad temporarily and Rs 2.7 crore to 829 critical cancer, heart surgeries, liver and kidney transplant patients, he said.The state government has also provided assistance to 1.50 lakh financially weak persons from Assam stranded in other states.The government has so far spent Rs 30 crore and more applications are being verified by the Deputy Commissioners, he said."This is the largest outreach programme taken up by any state government at this point of time", he claimed.
