Billing for your medical store in Chandigarh
The attendant at six in the morning, the reimbursement bill for the office and the sugar test done for coins.
Why the hospital attendant buys at six after a night in the corridor, the office wants a reimbursement bill and the sugar test is done for coins
The attendant at the window at six, after a night in the hospital corridor
A man who has slept on the corridor floor comes to the shop gate at six with a doctor's note and a list in his head: glucose, a thermometer, a few strips of tablets, a packet of cotton and two bottles of water. He is short of sleep and short of patience, and the pharmacist has to find all of it and add it up while the man shifts from foot to foot. The man pays and runs, and the shop's only record is the money in the box. Many of those who come at that hour have not eaten, and the pharmacist is the only person in the building who is not in a hurry to leave.
The government employee who needs every medicine named for his office's reimbursement
A clerk or an officer takes his father's medicines for a month and says his office will pay him back, but only against a bill that lists each medicine by name. The chemist writes out a second copy by hand on the shop's pad. When the office sends it back because one name is wrong, the clerk comes again, and the owner writes it again. He keeps the old strips on a shelf at home and brings the empty ones back to show which medicine he means.
The sugar test and the blood-pressure check, done at the counter for a few coins
Beside the medicines the shop offers a sugar test and a blood-pressure check for a few coins. An old man sits on the stool, the pharmacist reads the machine and says the number, and he pays and goes. The test strips are used one at a time and the coins go into the box, so at the end of the month the strips are fewer than the coins explain.
From a bill rewritten by hand for the office to one that names each medicine the first time
One bill for each patient, so each office claim stands alone
The clerk's form takes one bill for one patient. When a father buys for himself and for his wife, make two bills, one for each name, so each claim goes in with its own bill, even though they stood at the counter together and paid once. The name on the bill is what the clerk checks first.
Glucose, a thermometer and tablets, billed in the minute at six
The attendant has been awake all night in the corridor, and he wants three things fast: glucose, a thermometer and tablets. Bill them while he counts out his money. He is out before the next window opens, and the shelf comes down by exactly what he took. The corridor gets its medicines, and the counter keeps its count true.
The hospital's busy mornings come round on the same days
On the hospital's busy mornings glucose, thermometers and bandages go first, and those mornings come round on the same days of the week. Know which morning is the busy one before you order, and set the order for that day, not for the quiet ones, so the corridor rush finds the shelf full.
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Tools for a chemist near a hospital gate, with a cold shelf and a government clerk's claim form
Bills on your phone
A bill for a hospital attendant at six in the morning, made in seconds and sent to the phone of the sister waiting at home.
GST bills
An itemised bill with each medicine named, for the government employee who must present it to his office for repayment.
Low stock warnings
Test strips and the glucose that the hospital attendants ask for shown as they run low, before the early morning rush from the corridor.
What a Chandigarh chemist near a hospital asks before starting
Hospital visitors rarely come twice. Do I have to ask for a name before I can make a bill?
No. A bill needs only the items. A name or a phone number is there if the customer wants the bill on his phone, and left blank if he does not.
The sugar test uses one strip each time. Can the strips be counted against the tests I bill?
Yes. The test is an item with a small rate, and the strip is an item with a count. Each bill takes one strip off, and a low count shows before the box is empty.
Cotton, bandages, glucose and thermometers are not medicines. Can they sit in the same account as the strips?
Yes. Each is an item with its own rate and count, so the morning rush from the corridor is billed on the same screen as a prescription.
Jan Aushadhi at the civil hospitals, and the chemists' strike of 2018
Jan Aushadhi stores now run at all three Chandigarh civil hospitals, while private chemist shops there shut within a year because of high rent and low sales. A chemist who stays open near a hospital competes on the shelf, the queue and the clear bill.
In 2018 the Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali chemist associations joined a nationwide strike against online pharmacies; about 1,500 chemists from the three towns observed it. A chemist's own customers are mostly the families who live near the shop, and those are the ones a page and a WhatsApp bill reach.