Cuttack: Eight varieties of substandard drugs and injections worth Rs 11 lakh were given away to patients at SCB Medical College and Hospital here.
The shocking revelation came to the fore in the audit report of the hospital submitted by the Accountant General (AG) after which the state government has launched an internal audit into the matter.
The report said mismanagement occurred in 2015 when the state drug management unit (SDMU) supplied medicines to SCB. As per the drug management policy 2003, when a medicine is found to be of inferior quality, it would be treated under ‘‘not of standard quality (NSQ)’’. The NSQ category medicine shall be returned to the manufacturer or distributor who should refund the money.
However, the guidelines were flouted by SCB. Although SDMU had informed the SCB authorities that eight medicines supplied to the hospital in 2015 were sub-standard and the drugs were declared NSQ, 98 per cent of the medicines had been distributed before the report was made public. The cost of the medicines was worth Rs 11,41,953, the audit report pointed out.
The audit report said the government guidelines were violated. As per the drug management policy, medicines should have been supplied to hospitals after quality report from the SDMU was obtained. However, the eight types of medicines were supplied to the hospital without quality recommendation.
The SCB authorities also flouted norms by distributing the medicines among the patients without getting the quality report.
Sources said the doctors also played with the lives of pregnant women by administering them oxytocin injections of poor quality. The injection is used to strengthen labour contractions during and after childbirth. Later, the doctors at the hospital found that the quality of the medicines was compromised with. The hospital authorities also took measures to blacklist the manufacturer and distributor of the injection.
“The audit report exposed the role of drug examiners. Besides, the audit report clearly indicated that SDMU also failed in its duty. The authorities played with the lives of patients in the name of distributing free medicines,” said state patients’ rights forum president Bhusan Biswal.
When contacted, medical officer of SCB in charge of stores, Srikant Panda feigned ignorance about the matter. However, a senior stores employee found that the SDMU had supplied the medicines to SCB in 2015 and almost all medicines were distributed to the patient before the quality report came in.
SCB superintendent Shyama Kanungo asserted appropriate action was taken in this regard.
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