HYDERABAD: Supplies of medicines and medical consumables to several major government hospitals in Hyderabad have been disrupted after the Twin Cities Hospitals’ Suppliers Association halted about 90% of deliveries over dues exceeding Rs 140 crore. Health department officials, however, said there was no disruption in the availability of medicines.

According to official sources, essential and additional medicines are being procured through the Telangana Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation (TGMSIDC) and are available in government hospitals.

The suppliers’ association said it had stopped most deliveries of medicines, surgical disposables, implants and diagnostic kits from Thursday, while continuing to provide only emergency medicines on request.

Major government teaching hospitals affected include Gandhi Hospital, Osmania General Hospital, Niloufer Hospital, ENT Hospital, Government Maternity Hospital in Sultan Bazar, Government Hospital in Petlaburj and Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital.

These hospitals procure medicines and surgical supplies from the association under a two-year contract. According to the association, government hospitals and TGMSIDC together owe more than Rs 140 crore. Of this, about Rs 60 crore has been pending from government teaching hospitals since 2022 and around Rs 80 crore from TGMSIDC since 2025. The payments are supposed to be cleared within 40 days.

‘No funds left, banks deny further loans’

Association president Ramchandra Kandala said the state government releases the health budget for medical supplies through both centralised and decentralised mechanisms, with the latter accounting for about 20%. He said the decentralised budget under heads 211, 212 and 503 had largely not been released since 2022.

“In 2025, the government released the decentralised budget only for the first and second quarters for 211 medical and 212 surgical supplies, and did not release any funds for the 503 diagnostic budget, while previous dues are still pending,” Kandala said.

He also said Aarogyasri payments had been pending since January 2025 despite repeated representations to the chief minister, health minister and senior officials.

“As of now, we have stopped the supply of 90% of the medical supplies and are only providing emergency drugs to government hospitals as per their requests in cases of medical emergencies. We have no funds left to run our business and banks have refused to sanction further loans,” he said.

Kandala added that hospitals under the Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad in districts were also facing similar issues. The association has sent letters to several government hospitals in the city informing them of the stoppage of supplies.

This story has been written by Aarti Kashyap of The New Indian Express.