Post raids, CGHS hospitals’ stocks sent for test

Raids by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have revealed that Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) hospitals in the city were giving expired drugs to patients.

The raids also focussed on supply of sub-standard medicines.In Bangalore, raids were conducted on the CGHS hospitals at Koramangala, Shivaji Nagar, Malleswaram, Basavanagudi, Ulsoor, Vijayanagar, Jayanagar, Domlur, Ganganagar and C V Raman Nagar. Checks were also conducted on the Railway Hospital and ESIC Model Hospital in Bangalore.





“Our checks revealed that the CGHS dispensaries have stocks of drugs that have expired. They should be immediately disposed but the stocks are still kept in the dispensaries,” CBI Deputy Inspector-General, V V Lakshmi Narayana, told Express.



Narayana said samples were collected from these dispensaries and hospitals and sent for tests. He said it could take a month’s time for the result to come out.

In a joint operation from May 12, the CBI and the Centre’s and state’s drug controller units and CGHS vigilance wing had conducted nation-wide raids on the CGHS hospitals.

CBI unearths spurious drugs in CGHS hospitals

Surprise checks on several Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) dispensaries in the city revealed that some of them were supplying sub-standard, spurious and expired drugs to patients, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said today.

Teams of CBI, central and state drug controllers and the vigilance wing of CGHS conducted joint surprise checks from May 12 to 19 throughout the country. Checks were also conducted in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Bangalore by the Hyderabad zone of CBI.

In Hyderabad checks were carried out at the CGHS dispensaries at Begumpet, Alwal, Tarnaka, Secunderabad, Dilsukhnagar, Kanchanbagh, Charminar, Kakatiya Nagar and the government medical depot at SR Nagar. Checks were conducted at the railway and ESI hospitals at Nacharam and Sanatnagar.

“It was found that drugs, which were expired, were supplied to the CGHS dispensaries at Begumpet, Alwal, Kanchanbagh and Charminar and also at the ESI hospital at Nacharam,’’ CBI deputy inspector-general VV Lakshminarayana said. Samples were collected from these places and sent for clinical tests. “ Sample-testing may take a month’s time and based on the reports we will initiate action. We are investigating when they were supplied to the hospitals and why they are still in the hospital even after their expiry date,’’ the DIG said.

Expired drugs found in government hospitals



CHENNAI: The spurious drugs supply racket recently busted by the Chennai police seems to have had its tentacles reach far beyond expected as even Central Government hospitals – four of them in Chennai – were found to have been distributing time-barred medicines and drugs with less shelf life, even a few days ago.

In raids conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation for three days from May 15, seven Central Government hospitals and dispensaries in Chennai, Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram were found to be handing out drugs that posed a health hazard to patients, Ashok Kumar, Joint Director, CBI told reporters in Chennai on Thursday. The raids were part of a nationwide crackdown on spurious drugs.



“We have checked the samples in the presence of independent witnesses and with the help of drug inspectors.

The seized drugs are being sent to the Central Drugs Testing Laboratory for examination,” he said.





A special team consisting central drug inspectors and officers of the CBI, Chennai also conducted surprise raids at four pharmaceutical companies in Puducherry and a godown of a distributor in Chennai and detected that the manufacture and distribution of substandard drugs not permitted by the Drug Controller General of India was continuing.





Kumar said that if any of the manufacturing companies raided by the CBI were found to have had any connection with the gang involved in the distribution of spurious drugs, they would pass on the information to the CB-CID, which is investigating the cases related to that racket.





Source: Express Buzz