India, Oct. 21 -- Patients visiting the BMC-run Cooper Hospital in Juhu have been struggling for months as several essential and psychiatric medicines continue to remain out of stock. The crisis, hospital staff say, has persisted for nearly half a year, forcing many patients - especially those from low-income families - to purchase costly medicines from private pharmacies.

For families of psychiatric patients, the situation has become particularly distressing.

Nineteen-year-old Sujay Sardaar, who lives with a mental disability in Andheri East, has been under psychiatric care at Cooper Hospital since 2024. His father, Ananta, 58, said that for the past six months, the family has rarely received the prescribed medicines at the hospital. ...