Illegal hoarding of medicine

How does medicine and medical equipment meant to be supplied to patients according to their needs end up in a pond? That is what happened inside Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital (SBMCH) in Barisal last Friday. Later, police also found medicine in the house of an employee of the hospital. A day later, a cache of medicine, enough to meet the requirement of the ward for three months, was seized from a ward in the hospital, even though medicine is supposed to be supplied to the wards on a day to day basis. According to the rules, hoarding of medicine is illegal, and any medicine which is not needed is supposed to be returned. 

The Director of the SBMCH has expressed frustration at the case, because this indicates that a portion of the medicine, meant for patients, is probably being stored to be sold later. Last year, medicine worth 8 crore 25 lakh was bought for the hospital, a major portion of which, the authorities are now fearing, did not reach the intended patients. That the police are thinking that there is a syndicate at work speaks of failure in monitoring. Each ward has officials who are supposed to monitor this supply of medicine and ensure that patients are receiving them.

The hospital authorities have formed two committees to investigate whether the medicine and equipment were stolen from stores of the hospital. The police are investigating too and arrests have been made. We hope that these will result in determining who were behind this crime and how far it extends. That there has been corruption and failure to ensure transparency cannot be overstated. The institutional safeguards have failed, and in the process it has been the patients who suffered the most.