CUTTACK: Stung by the revelations on 1,500 bottles of expired saline being administered to the patients, the SCB Medical authorities have finally moved to set right the drugs procurement, management and supply mechanisms.The hospital while issuing showcause notices to the erring pharmacist, staff nurse, technical storekeeper as well as senior pharmacist on the basis of the instructions of the Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) has started restructuring the working process in the Central Drug Store. The DMET has directed termination of staff nurse Smarita Das and pharmacist Baikuntha Tripathy and initiation of departmental proceedings against senior pharmacist Iswar Padhy. “The inquiry report of the DMET has brought to the fore definite evidence of the negligence on part of the staff. It has also hinted at several lacunae in the drug management and distribution system in the hospital,” Superintendent Prof DN Moharana admitted.As a first step, the authorities have moved to make the staff of the Central Drug Store accountable for receipt, stocking and supply of each and every bottle, syringe, strip of vial of drugs and parenteral sent to the wards.There are around 10 pharmacists in the central store for managing drugs and medicines to be supplied to the departments. “Each and everyone has been asked to ensure not a single tablet moves in or out before registration of the label and batch number with manufacturing and expiry details in the register. We will now be holding review of the inflow and outgo of stock on a daily basis,” medical officer Dr Bhuban Mohan Moharana said.All the staff in the wards, primarily nurses, have also been instructed to check the labels on every medicine or administrable before putting them on the patient. They should also be vigilant towards the condition of the drugs like contamination, fungal growth or contact with open air due to rupture in packets, Moharana said.The DMET probe into the death of 60-year-old Punia Naik, after allegedly being administered expired saline, had exposed serious lapses in drug management, which put lives of hundreds of patients at risk. The staff were not keeping records of the state of drugs being supplied to the wards as a result of which there was rampant outflow of expired drugs and indiscriminately administered among the patients. As many as 1,500 bottles of 10 per cent Dextrose solutions are stated to have been supplied from the store even after they had expired. All but one had been administered to patients.“Though medically, the expired saline could not cause deaths, the lapses on the part of the staff cannot be ignored as a whole lot of medicines of all types and for various disease conditions are supplied to patients,” a senior doctor said.
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