Drugs worth Rs 2.91 crore found substandard
Thiruvananthapuram, September 2016:
The Kerala Medical Services Corporation limited has found that drugs worth Rs 2.91 crore which have been supplied by various companies as substandard. Major cause of concern is the fact that it has been found some of the batches of these drugs are already consumed by the patients.
It was detected in the random checking of the samples collected from the hospitals. These generic drugs were purchased in the last financial year and has been distributed to hospitals in the state. Although these drugs have been recalled from the stores of the hospitals it has been found that already some of the batches have already been distributed through the pharmacy outlets in the hospitals.
"These drugs have been stocked in the godown of the KMSCL. Now the companies have been asked to take back these drugs and also to compensate back to the corporation" said a higher official of the KMSCL.
These generic drugs were purchased for free distribution to the people from all the government hospitals. "If the companies are not taking back the drugs then the KMSCL authorities will seek the permission of the government to destroy the medicines," said the official.
Even though the drugs are purchased by the KMSCL after getting its quality tested from the accredited labs, not every batch of the drugs are tested. Hence random samples are collected from the hospitals and send for testing after it is distributed. Hence the drugs which are tested sub-standard are already consumed by the people.
"This is not the first time that the drugs are being tested sub-standard after it is being consumed by the patients. Unless we have a tight screening on the drug samples such incidents will occur again," said Dr A K Raoof, state secretary of Kerala Government Medical Officers Association.
The health service doctors have raised this issue several times to the government and had insisted that all the batches of the drugs which are supplied to the hospitals should be tested before it is supplied.
"There is no point in testing the drugs after it is supplied to the hospitals. At many instances the drugs are declared sub standard after it is given through the pharmacies of the hospitals," said the KGMOA leader.
Lack of testing facilities is the main cause of concern for the KMSCL. Even though there were announcements to open regional drug testing labs in the state only in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram such labs are available. "These two labs not have the capacity to test such a heavy load of drugs. Hence in every district there should be testing facility, said Dr Raoof. ET Health World