LAHORE: The Directorate General Health Services Punjab has allegedly purchased a ‘substandard’ anaesthesia medicine to be supplied to the district headquarters hospitals all over the province.
The ‘scam’ surfaced when Medical Store Depot (MSD) Director General Dr Mubashar Attique got the medicine tested from the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, without informing the DG Office management and it turned out ‘substandard’, sources said.
They said by the time the health authorities came to know about the scam, the DGHS had made full payment to the company which supplied the medicine under a contract agreement.
In a similar scam surfacing in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) a couple of years ago, officially procured substandard drugs’ disbursement among the patients had led to many deaths.
It is yet to be ascertained whether the drug procured by the health DG was dispatched to the district hospitals or not.
The sources said the health authorities concerned, however, tried to hush up the matter to avoid wrath of the Punjab chief minister who believed in prompt ‘accountability’ of the government officials if found guilty of gross mismanagement or corruption.
An official privy to the information told Dawn the health DG office had signed a contract for the procurement of Isoflorane, a sophisticated general inhalation anesthetic drug used for induction and maintenance of general anaesthesia.
He said after going through the due tender process, the health DG placed the order and the company concerned supplied the medicine in bulk a couple of months back which was stocked with the MSD.
Though inspection team cleared the drug, it mentioned in its ‘inspection note’ that the documents related to the procurement of the medicine carried no Drug Testing Lab (DTL) certificate.
The testing/verification procedures mentioned in the agreement clearly stated, “After delivery of drugs and medicines at the purchaser’s premises, the purchaser shall send the samples from each batch to the Drugs Testing Laboratory, Punjab, for testing. The inspection committee constituted by the purchaser shall inspect the quantity, specifications of goods after receipt of standard quality report from DTL concerned”.
Meanwhile, the official said, the MSD on-duty pharmacists after noticing some changes in the colour of the drug visible to the ‘naked eye’ recommended it for tests last month.
Surprisingly, when they contacted the DTL for the drug’s examination, they found the Lahore lab lacking in analysis capacity, he said.
The MSD officials then dispatched the drug samples to the NIH, Islamabad, for testing. The NIH report disclosed that the drug was carrying excessive percentage of fiber and non-volite material.
Following the report which clearly indicated the drug was substandard, the DGHS took up the issue with the manufacturing company’s management and also issued a notice for its immediate replacement. The company, however, expressed its reservation regarding the report’s authenticity, apprehending the drug samples dispatched to the NIH might have been changed.
“We have dispatched another batch of the drug samples again to the NIH for testing”, Purchase Cell Secretary of the DGHS Usman Habib told Dawn.
Confirming the earlier NIH report had declared the drug ‘substandard’, he said the DGHS was waiting for analysis report of the other samples dispatched to NIH for counter verification.
Mr Usman claimed the DTL had full capacity to analyse the drugs like Isoflorane.
He said according to the deal agreement, the company which supplied the drug was responsible for its replacement if found substandard. “We have sealed the drug and categorically conveyed the company to replace it without further delay”, he said.
Usman Habib said the company had also attached a certificate with the agreement documents that the drug supplied to the DGHS had met the quality standards.
He also claimed the drug had not been supplied to the district hospitals of Punjab so far.
Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2014