Medicines dumped at Marten had expired: Minister

SHILLONG, July 2: Health Minister, Ampareen Lyngdoh on Sunday said that a departmental probe ordered into the dumping of medicines at the Marten dumping ground has established that the medicines had expired.
The Directorate of Health Services (DHS) had initiated a probe after reports in a section of the media claimed that several truckloads of medicines had been dumped at Marten on June 29.
Quoting the inquiry report, Lyngdoh said the medicines dumped at Marten were past the expiry date and that these were supposed to have been incinerated through proper procedure.
She said the medicines had been indented according to the demands of the districts and various health institutions across the state and were procured for distribution.
“A part of the medicines procured was stored in the Central Medical Store for meeting any emergency demand. But these medicines were stuck in the store due to the Covid-19 pandemic as there was no immediate demand. The medicines expired due to non-utilisation during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Lyngdoh said.
She said that medicines are kept in reserve in anticipation of unforeseen health emergencies, natural disasters, government health camps, and for NGOs, sports events, visits of VIPs and dignitaries, and school health programmes.
She further said that the expired medicines needed to be disposed of as they were taking up a lot of space in the store, making it difficult to accommodate newly-indented medicines.
The pharmacist in charge of the Central Medical Store had informed the Directorate of Health Services (MI) through letter number HSM/PB/CMS/2022-23/51 on May 27 that the expired medicines needed to be disposed of at the earliest, Lyngdoh said.
She further said that the list of expired medicines as certified by the appropriate authority was available.
She said the assistant drugs controller, DHS (MI) communicated to the pharmacist in charge of the Central Medical Store on June 19 for the disposal of the expired medicines.
“The pharmacist in charge then informed the appropriate authority about the disposal of the expired medicines, which was carried out on June 29,” Lyngdoh said.