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Since there are increasing number of incidents of medication errors taking the lives of patients and children in government hospitals, former senior manager (pharmacy) at the Bihar State Pharmaceuticals & Chemical Development Corporation Limited, has appealed to all state health ministers to take steps to appoint qualified pharmacy practice persons in drug store management (DSM) in each hospital.
Currently, non-pharmacists are taking care of the DSMs in many of the government healthcare institutions. The situation of lack of qualified pharmacists to handle inventory in government hospitals paves the way for so many untoward incidents in several places.
Referring to the tragic incident happened at the Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital (MY Hospital) in Indore on June 22, this year, Dr. Roop Narayanan Gupta, from Jharkhand said in his letter to the health ministers that, had the government authorities appointed qualified pharmacists at the drugs store management division, the tragedy could have been averted.
Seventeen patients, including two children, were dead in the incident which happened reportedly due to obstruction in oxygen supply. In 2016, an eight year old boy died at the same hospital after he was mistakenly administered nitrous oxide, a widely used anaesthetic agent, instead of oxygen, Dr. Gupta wrote in the letter.
Concerned over drug related issues and tragedies happening every time in government hospitals, Dr Gupta appealed to the state governments to strengthen the drug store management systems in the hospitals, leaving them to the control of pharmacists. Because of bad storage of medicines and dispensing date expired drugs, so many medication errors are happening. Non-utilisation of drugs usually causes degradation of the medicines into toxic compound and for expiring the time limit. These problems can be addressed if the charge of inventory is given to a pharmacist.
According to Dr. Gupta, this kind of unfortunate instances are occurring continuously, but are suppressed in the name of enquiry. While analyzing the situation, it is revealed that the drug store was handled by a non-pharmacist. He wants that the purchase of drugs to the pharmacies should also go through the hands of a pharmacist.
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