PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE / Dehradun
The Deen Dayal Upadhyay District Hospital principal medical superintendent Dr Yatendra Singh has directed officials concerned to segregate medicines and injections three months before their expiry date. The order comes in the wake of an alleged lapse in patient safety at the hospital. Informing about this, Singh said that an incident was recently highlighted in which it was alleged that staff attempted to administer an expired injection to a patient. Before the injection could be given, the patient refused to take it. Following this, a video of the incident went viral on social media.
The hospital administration formed a six-member committee to probe the incident and ascertain the source of the said injection. Singh added that action will be taken based on the findings of the investigation report. Addressing concerns regarding other expired medicines or injections in the hospital, Singh said that immediately after the incident came to light, he personally conducted an inspection of the store, dispensary and wards across the hospital premises. No such medicine or injection was found during the inspection. He has also directed the officials to separate medicines and injections three months prior to expiry. Along with this, a separate register for expired medicines and injections is also to be maintained, he said.
Pertinently, these measures have been taken after a recent incident was reported in which Gaurav Gulati, a resident of Sahastradhara, was admitted to the surgery ward of the district hospital for post-operative care following hernia surgery. The issue came to light when hospital staff attempted to administer an injection to Gulati. The patient noticed that the vial had allegedly expired and refused to take it. People present at the spot recorded a video of the incident, which later went viral on social media and invited criticism of the hospital administration.
Dehradun chief medical officer Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma also decided to issue a letter to all government and private hospitals in Dehradun district, directing them to ensure that such negligence is avoided in the future.
