Dhenkanal Hospital does an SCB

CUTTACK: While the issue of expired saline being administered to patients at the SCB Medical here is yet to die down, similar lapses have come to the fore at the Dhenkanal District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) on Sunday.Expired drugs, injections and parenterals were allegedly indiscriminately administered to the patients in the hospital as the High Court-appointed Committee on monitoring of health care systems in the State and the Biomedical Waste Taskforce found out.The Committee, which visited the DHH for inspection of biomedical waste handling and disposal system, stumbled upon used vials and ampules of injections that had expired months ago but appeared to have been administered to patients recently.As evidence, the committee members got one used vial of Gentamycin injection from the Paediatric ward of the hospital that had expired in June. The vial appeared to have been freshly administered and disposed of.“We found the vial discarded on the window sill of the Paediatric ward. On closer examination, to our horror we discovered that it had expired in June 2011 with manufacture date being July 2009. It bore the batch number I-3987. While no one was forthcoming on when it was used, that the expired medicine was administered to a child has raised serious questions on the functioning of the hospital,” amicus curiae and Committee member PR Das said.The Committee also went to the drug store of the hospital and detected boxes of Gentamycin injections with the same batch number and expiry date. A report would be submitted to the High Court on the state of affairs in the hospital.The Taskforce also noted that there was no adherence to rules and stipulations of the Biomedical Waste (handling and disposal) Act despite the HC issuing strict instructions to the Government on the issue. There was no coloured bin and hazardous medical waste found strewn across the wards, OPDs and on the hospital campus.“The vial is evidence of absence of waste disposal in proper manner. It was left to roll on the sill when such items should be disposed of in a specified manner through incineration,” the amicus curiae said.Chief District Medical Officer, Dhenkanal, Dr BC Behera, while admitting certain deficiencies in biomedical waste disposal, denied that expired medicines and drugs were given to patients. “It might have been left there since long and went unnoticed. However, we are enquiring into the matter”, Behera said.