VIJAYAWADA: The element of surprise has gone missing in many cases when drug control administration conducts its inspections of pharmacies, blood banks, or pharmaceutical firms.
There is a computer-aided programme that randomly allots inspection works to drug inspectors and other officials vis-à-vis their area of jurisdiction and location of pharmacies, blood banks and pharmaceutical firms. Based on the allotment, officials inspect the pharmacies and submit their reports about action taken for any lapses or everything being in order.
Such inspections are essential as there could be cases of, for example, pharmacies resorting to violations, including selling drugs that have expired, sale of medicines without a valid prescription, selling beyond maximum retail price (MRP), not issuing bills for the sale of drugs, failure to maintain registers of drugs, stock position and a host of other issues. Drug inspectors check for these aspects and penalise those who flout norms of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. So is the case with blood banks and pharmaceutical units that could be violating stipulated conditions.
A problem has arisen now because data is not being updated with regard to the addresses of firms and their current location. When officials reach a place for inspection as per the random allotment, they realise that the pharmacy has shifted from there. This forces them to call up the firm before reaching there for inspection. The surprise element thus goes missing as, in the interim, owners of firms can cook up their registers. Or, they may claim they are out of the station and their pharmacy is closed for the time being.
Further, there is a time limit for inspections to be carried out. If inspectors fail in carrying out their inspection, they have to submit an explanation. To avoid this, certain officials file false inspection reports claiming all is well. This poses a great risk to the health of people, as they could be sold expired medicines or given blood of wrong group.
A senior official from the drugs control administration said, “There is a need to update data of all units listed for inspection, including their addresses, in the software application, so that inspections could be properly carried out. This will ensure safety with regard to drugs and blood supplied to patients.”
