Billing for your medical store in Himachal Pradesh
Cough syrup before the cold, a single strip for the traveller and the cold shelf counted on its own.
Cough syrup counted before the cold, a strip for the traveller and the cold shelf on its own
Cough syrup counted before the cold
Open last year's days from the first cold and see how much cough syrup and paracetamol went in that week. Set the order against that, and let the warning on your phone tell you when the shelf is falling short. The order goes while the road is open, and the cough of the whole village is met with a shelf that is full. Next year's first cold will find the shelf ready.
A strip as an item beside the box
The bus is about to leave and a passenger wants one strip for his headache. The strip is its own item beside the box, with its own rate and count, so he is billed in one tap. The strips' count goes down and the boxes' count stays as it was, and nothing is cut from a box that the book does not know.
The cold shelf as a place of its own
Keep the cold shelf as a godown of its own on your phone, with insulin, eye drops and syrups counted there and nowhere else. When the line is down you know how many of each are in it and which to move first, and the ordinary shelf is never touched by mistake. The same count tells you, at the end of the snow cut, what to reorder first.
Kangra's valley, the Mandi crossroads and Shimla's bazaars, as a medical store hears of them
A medical store in the hills hears about the other valleys from the people who come in, and these are the facts they speak of.
- Kangra's economy is mostly farming, with tea a vital crop around Palampur and Baijnath. Bir Billing is a growing hub for ecotourism and aero sports.
- Mandi town sits where National Highways 20, 21 and 70 meet, and the whole district depends on it for trade and commerce.
- Shimla's main shopping areas are The Mall, Lower Bazaar for daily items, Tibetan Bazaar for imported electronics and fancy items, and Lakkar Bazaar for wooden crafts.
The first cold, the traveller on the hill road and the cold shelf in a snow cut
The first cold and the cough syrup that goes in a week
When the first cold comes down from the hills, the whole village has a cough in the same week. Cough syrup, paracetamol and throat tablets go off the shelf together. You were told to order early and you meant to, but the last count was a glance at the shelf, and now the next order is two days away on a road that is not always open. Customers who came for it go to the shop in the next town, and some do not come back.
The traveller on the hill road with a headache
A bus stops on the road and a passenger walks in feeling sick from the bends or the height. He wants one tablet, or one strip, or a cream for his sun-burnt nose, and he wants it now, before the bus leaves. You cut a strip from a box, take his money and put the box back. By the evening you cannot say how many strips are left in that box or how many boxes you sold.
Snow on the line and the cold shelf
Snow brings the power line down, and the cold shelf, where the insulin, the eye drops and some syrups live, warms by the hour. You have until evening to decide what to sell first and what to throw out, and you decide on a guess, because nobody has written down what is in there. A medicine that had to stay cold is the one you can least afford to miscount.
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What a hill medical store keeps on the phone, from the first cold to the snow cut
Low stock warnings
A warning that the cough syrup or the paracetamol is running out, in the week when the first cold reaches the valley.
Godown stock
The cold shelf as a godown of its own, counted apart from the shelf the customers see.
Orders to suppliers
The order to your distributor before the first cold, cold-shelf medicines first, and what came in noted when the lorry reaches town.
What medical store owners in Himachal ask
The health worker of a village on the mule track buys for the whole village once a month. Whose page does it go on?
On a page in the village's name, with the health worker's name beside it. Each month's buying is a bill with its date, and the village's page shows what it took in the cold months and what in the rains.
The power line is down for two days. What do I sell first from the cold shelf?
Open the cold shelf's count and sell first what the waiting customers have asked for. When the line comes back, count the shelf again and set the count to what is really there, so the shelf and the phone agree.
A customer could not get her medicine here and went to the next town. How do I stop that happening again?
Make what she asked for an item, send the supplier an order and note it when it arrives. The next person who asks for it is not sent to the next town.
Jan Aushadhi Kendras in Himachal, and the dengue weeks in Bilaspur
Himachal Pradesh has 76 Jan Aushadhi Kendras, the government generic-medicine outlets, with 16 in Kangra district and 7 in Chamba district. A customer may ask a store for the cheaper generic because one is close by.
In July 2018 an ICMR team reached Himachal Pradesh after 102 dengue cases were confirmed in Bilaspur since 8 June, a state health official said. In weeks like that the same few medicines and test strips leave the shelf fast, and a store that sees its own count falling can order before it runs out.