TURA, March 25: Drug suppliers in Meghalaya are literally taking the state to the cleaners by dumping tonnes of medicines having a short expiry date for use in hospitals and rural health centres and collecting bills worth crores of rupees, indicating a nexus between the suppliers and those in authority to fleece the state of its limited revenue and at the cost of the health of the people.
This practice of supplying medicines having a short life span has allegedly helped suppliers to regularly restock the state medicine cabinet with fresh consignments, once again having a limited shelf life, and in the process submitting bills worth crores of rupees.
The latest proposal from the Health department is a move to release several crores of rupees as payment for medicines having a short expiry date supplied to various hospitals and rural health centres across the state.
The Health portfolio is held by BJP legislator AL Hek and all supplies of drugs are undertaken by the Directorate of Health Services (MI) helmed by Dr Aman War.
According to sources from the medical fraternity who spoke to The Shillong Times on condition of anonymity, a huge number of such medicines have been supplied not just in the Garo Hills region but even in Khasi and Jaintia Hills.
Take the case of a single rural health centre located in the remote region of Chokpot, South Garo Hills where medical teams recently destroyed a huge consignment of unused but expired medicines by burning it in an open pit.
“There is no municipal dumping area nor can we discard it near rivers or even into septic tanks due to the chemical nature of the medicines which can cause long term damage to the soil and water. So the medical staff had no option but to burn it,” revealed medics.
The medicines being supplied with a short expiry date reportedly consists of antibiotics, cough syrups, paracetamol, anti-allergy cetirizine and even ayurvedic medicines.
This practice of destroying medicines worth crores of rupees has reportedly been taking place in almost all districts of the state for several years causing the state exchequer enormous revenue loss.
According to sources in the department, these medicines are being destroyed ahead of the end of every financial year on March 31 so as to allow suppliers to once again obtain the medicine indent and provide a fresh batch, once again consisting of limited shelf life medicines.
When The Shillong Times sought a response from Principal Secretary, Health, P Sampath Kumar on the issue, the top bureaucrat said, “The issue of wastage of drugs due to supply of short expired drugs needs to be addressed immediately. The complaints received from the district that they are dumped with this kind of medicine and not as per their requirement is a serious matter and it needs to be inquired into,” said Kumar.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has not taken kindly to the supply of short expiry drugs to the state and recently held a high level meeting on the issue.
“In the meeting with the chief minister, we have issued instructions to the DHS (MI) to compulsorily use the drug management system to ensure transparency and efficiency to streamline the system. We are exploring the Tamil Nadu model of setting up a separate corporation for procurement and supply of drugs with a system of vouchers where the health centres can procure the medicines as per their requirement instantly in a decentralised manner,” announced Kumar.
However, the government has been silent on the role of the suppliers who are pushing for these kinds of short expired medicines.
Questions remain as to what action would be taken against these suppliers who have looted the state of crores of rupees with these kinds of medicine.