Elders in a bind as Bengaluru druggists shut shop

BENGALURU: Grimacing with pain, M Joseph, 74, sat outside a medical shop in Victoria Layout, Richmond Road on Wednesday morning.Cupping one side of his face, Joseph was desperately waiting for the shop to open so he could buy some painkiller for his toothache. "I stay nearby . I can't walk till the nearest hospital. My tooth is aching very badly and I've been waiting for the past half an hour, hoping the shop will open," Joseph told TOI.When informed that druggists across the country are on strike for the day, Joseph's worries only increased.Soon, a neighbour turned up and handed over a few cloves to the septuagenarian to chew on for some temporary relief. Down the stretch, another elderly couple was seen staring helplessly at another closed chemist shop. "We want to buy medicines for our heart ailments and diabetes. Missing even one dose affects our health. I did not know about this strike at all. This is such an inconvenience," the man, who declined to reveal his name, said. The couple said they plan to call their son and ask him to fetch them the medicines. With most of the 8,000 chemists and druggists of Bengaluru downing their shutters as part of a nationwide strike demanding curbs on online sale of medicines, people who had not stocked their essentials had a tough time. Elders were the worst hit. With medical centres attached to nursing homes and hospitals, and generic drug stores attached to government hospitals exempted from the purview of the strike, those in need of drugs headed towards them. At Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital there was a huge rush outside the pharmacy outlet. "We have come from JC Nagar to buy medicines for my daughter who isn't keeping well.And we had to wait for 20 minutes to get what we wanted as there is such a crowd here to buy medicines," said Husain S. Gautham, who runs a small medical shop in Chamrajpet, claimed notices and pamphlets about the strike had been put up a week in advance and customers were aware about the strike. "We are community pharmacists. So our absence for one day would certainly have caused some disruption," he said. Medical shops that were part of retail chains too worked as usual. -TOI