Sri Vijaya Puram: A critical shortage of essential anaesthetic medicines at GB Pant Hospital has halted surgeries and left hundreds of patients stranded, exposing serious gaps in the medical procurement system of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
An internal circular issued by the hospital, the only tertiary-care facility in the Union Territory, confirms that stocks of routine anaesthetic drugs have been fully exhausted. Only limited quantities remain available, preserved strictly for emergency procedures. As a result, scheduled operations across orthopaedics, general surgery, gynaecology, gastroenterology, and other departments have been suspended indefinitely.
With no alternative tertiary-care centre in the islands, the disruption has left patients in uncertainty, including many who travelled from remote areas for planned surgeries. Families now face delays with no clarity on when essential medical procedures will resume.
The crisis has intensified scrutiny of the Government e-Marketplace (GEM) system used for procuring medicines, equipment and consumables in government hospitals. Concerns have been repeatedly raised about delays, procedural bottlenecks and the system’s limited ability to respond quickly to urgent healthcare requirements.
A written submission made by Hindu Rashtra Shakti, an Andaman-based charity and public-interest group, and reviewed by The Wave Andaman, has sought immediate intervention from the Administration. The organisation has called for urgent replenishment of essential anaesthetic stocks, an inquiry into the circumstances that led to the stock-out, and replacement of the GEM-based procurement system with a more responsive and health-specific mechanism.
The submission also recommends that patients whose surgeries cannot proceed at GB Pant Hospital be treated at private hospitals at government expense until normal services resume. It further stresses the need for stronger forecasting, monitoring and accountability mechanisms to prevent future disruptions of this scale.
As of publication time, the Andaman & Nicobar Administration has not issued a public statement on the crisis. An email sent by The Wave Andaman to the Directorate of Health Services seeking comment remained unanswered. Emergency procedures continue under restricted drug reserves, while routine surgical activity remains suspended.
For thousands of residents who depend on GB Pant Hospital as the backbone of tertiary healthcare, the incident has underscored longstanding concerns about supply-chain vulnerabilities and highlighted the urgent need for systemic reforms to safeguard uninterrupted patient care.
