The State Health Department has constituted a team of employees from two international agencies to conduct an exhaustive drug audit in Ranga Reddy and Mahbubnagar districts to understand how medicines are procured, stored and distributed at government health centres.
Sources said the audit, being conducted on the orders of State’s top health officials, started around March-end, a few weeks after painkiller Tramadol — instead of paracetamol — was given to infants who underwent immunisation at the Nampally Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC).
Parents of the infants had alleged that it the UPHC staff had handed them Tramadol tablets on March 6 after consuming the tablets the two infants had died. Thirty-four others were admitted to Niloufer Hospital and subsequently discharged over the next few days. In the wake of the tragic incident, questions were raised over what had led to the confusion, and how drugs were stored and distributed to patients/attendants.
Record verification
Sources in the department said the drug audit team has verified one-year records in Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) and Urban PHCs in the two districts to find out how orders are placed to procure medicines, how are they stored, and distributed by pharmacists, whether drugs nearing expiry date are supplied to health centres and other aspects.
“The elaborate audit will help understand if medicines are procured in more than required amounts or if they are not needed, and the medicines in demand at PHCs,” a source said. It is learnt that a review meeting was also held in this regard.
The audit might be conducted in other districts, too, and a report will be submitted to officials in the Health department.
Sources pointed out the need to use e-aushadhi (online) system at all health centres which helps in tracking and tracing all drugs and surgical materials from procurement point to end user. “Now, some pharmacists, who handle 100 to 150 patients, find it difficult to dispense drugs and enter the details into the e-aushadhi portal,” a source said.
Officials from the department did not respond to phone calls.
