Bad quality drugs ail Telangana hospitals

Hyderabad: “Medicines supplied to government-run hospitals are not up to the mark,” claims a survey conducted by the National Institute of Biologicals.

The survey found that Telangana state stood on the higher side. The survey conducted by the Union ministry of health and family welfare, found that ‘not so good drugs’ in government hospitals were as high as 3.16 per cent. Spurious drugs in retail outlets were recorded at 0.0245 per cent. In TS, the survey found that in government-run hospitals, the not-so-good drugs were as high as 13 per cent, medical store depots were at 9 per cent, ESI dispensaries at 9 per cent and CHS dispensaries were 4 per cent.

A senior government doctor said, “During the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital incident, doctors handed over a video which showed fungus in the saline bottles but no action has been taken.”

TGDA has for a long time been demanding a quality control officer to check the drugs which are being procured and supplied by the department, but no action has been taken so far. Doctors claim that the lapses have now culminated in similar incidents occurring at other government hospitals such as Niloufer Hospital where oxytocin injections don’t work on patients.

Dr B. Praveen, president of Telangana Government Doctors Association says, “High-end medicines are of utmost importance, but even simple medicines like paracetamol often don’t work in many cases. We face this problem on a regular basis.”