Billing for your medical store in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Know which medicine is down to its last strips before a patient asks for it and the answer is a week away.
A medicine that is not on the shelf is a week's wait
A patient asks, and the answer is a week away
On a mainland street a medical store sends a boy to the next shop for the strip it lacks. Here the next shop probably lacks it too, so the medicine comes by the next supply and the patient waits. You hear about the gap from the patient, in front of the other customers, and the shop's name takes the blame. An elderly patient who comes with a stick and a long list is the one most hurt by a second trip. A shop that says no too often is a shop that people stop asking.
A patient from a smaller island buys the month's medicines at once
A patient who crosses by ferry takes the month's medicines in one visit, because the next visit means another crossing. The bill is long, the strips are many, and a wrong count of one strip is a wrong month for someone who cannot come back for it. The strips for a month are many and the patient is tired, so you cannot afford a mistake in the count.
The usual shelf and the Ayush shelf side by side
Customers ask for Ayush medicines as well as the usual ones, and the two shelves have their own names and pack sizes. A shop that carries both has twice the items and the same two hands, and a customer waits while you find which shelf has the one she wants. Neither shelf can be left unattended, and a customer who waits at the counter has a long day already.
The strips, the loose tablets and the monthly refill
The long list is answered on the first visit
An elderly patient steps off the ferry with a stick and a list of medicines. Each medicine has a count you read before the order went to the supplier, so most of the list is on the shelf and she is told yes at the first counter. The second crossing for the rest is not needed.
The Saturday list before two days without a supply
Before a weekend the list shows which medicines have only a few strips left. You know what the shop has to last on, and the patient who comes on Sunday is not the first to find out that a medicine has gone.
The screen shows which of the two shelves to walk to
Add 'Ayush' to the name of each Ayush medicine, so the screen shows which of the two shelves a medicine lives on. A customer who asks by name is sent to the right shelf at once, and the count tells her whether the walk is worth it.
The sea between a medical store and its supplier
A medicine here has travelled to reach the counter.
- Port Blair has the Haddo, Wharf and Chatham harbours for ships to the mainland, about 1,190 km from Chennai and 1,255 km from Kolkata. A shop that restocks from the mainland works across that distance.
Tools for a medicine counter that restocks across the water
Bills on your phone
A month's strips for a patient from a smaller island on one long bill, each medicine at its own rate, sent on WhatsApp for the next crossing.
Low stock warnings
The sea-sickness strips and the traveller's plasters are read on the morning of a crossing, so you see before the ferry whether the rack will last the travellers who queue for the next sailing.
Daily reports
Sales of the days after a long spell of rough weather, read back before the next order is written.
Questions island medical store owners ask
Travellers rush in for strips against sea-sickness just before a crossing, and the ferry will not wait. How do I bill them fast?
Keep each sea-sickness strip as its own item with its own rate, so one tap picks it and the bill is made before the ferry leaves. At closing the day's sales show how many of each went, and that number goes on the Saturday list.
The Ayush medicines and the usual ones are on different shelves. Do I need two lists?
One list is enough. The Ayush shelf and the usual shelf are two places in one shop, and what the Ayush shelf holds depends on the last sailing, so a single list serves both.
A fisherman's family takes the same strips every month. How do I count out next month's before the boat leaves?
On the morning the boat leaves, count out the strips the family takes each month and check the count of each on the phone. Any that is short goes on the Saturday list, so next month's lot is not found short at the jetty.
Ayush medicines and the Jan Aushadhi Kendra at Campbell Bay
In April 2024 a political party said most prescribed drugs were unavailable at Port Blair's Ayush Hospital, pushing patients to buy Ayush medicines from private medical shops. A private shop that holds those medicines in stock becomes the place a patient is sent to.
A Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Kendra was inaugurated at the Campbell Bay primary health centre in Great Nicobar on 27 April 2022. Customers in the south of the islands have a second kind of counter to compare a private shop with, so a private shop does well to know its own rates by heart or from its phone.