Drugs in J&K hospitals not tested before given to patients: CAG report

Putting the lives of patients at risk, the J&K government has been approving use of medicines in hospitals without conducting a quality check, says a CAG report. 

In its latest report, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has brought to fore some startling revelations on how patients’ health is being compromised with due to the absence of a drug-testing policy in the state. The report, which puts the Mehbooba Mufti government in a spot, has blamed it for scams running right under its nose. Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are allies in the government.

“The audit revealed that no policy mechanism was in place for testing of drugs before these are administered to patients,” reads the report which was tabled in the State Assembly recently.

There is no mechanism in place in the State Health Department for referral of samples by health institutions for testing to Drug Controller or to any third party accredited laboratories.

Elaborating on the gravity of the issue, the CAG has referred to “instances” where large-scale medicines procured by the health department were proposed for supply to patients before they were lifted for testing by the Drug and Food Control Organisation and declared “not of standard quality”.

As per the report, the State Drug and Food Controller Organisation had checked 1,833 samples from health institutions during 2014-15. Of these, 43 samples were declared “not of standard use”, the CAG report said, adding that 50.95 lakh units of tablets, capsules or injections worth Rs 82.74 lakh that were declared “not of standard use” by the testing organisations had already been proposed for supply to patients.

“This happened due to absence of proper mechanism for monitoring of the reports, once the samples were lifted for the testing as by the time the test reports had been received by the hospitals, the entire supply of the drugs/medicines had been administered fully or partially to the patients. The lack of policy guidelines for ensuring third party testing of drugs/medicines procured was an area of concern which had resulted in issuance of sub-standard drugs/medicines for supply to patients,” the report stated.

The CAG has asked the government to ensure that a strict mechanism for regular testing of drugs is put in place before they are provided to the patients. The report has also criticised the state government for failing to prepare the purchase manual for the guidance of the health institutions even after the lapse of about three years of adoption of Drug Policy.

Talking to Millennium Post on CAG report, Congress leader Rani Gargi Baloria said, “It’s the failure of Mufti government, which is in power with the support of BJP. We have been raising our voices against all such practices of this PDP-BJP government, but they charged us with playing politics. Now, the CAG report has validated our allegations.” Lashing out at the Mufti government, Baloria said, “The people of J&K has given them the mandate to work for their betterment and not to spoil their lives by promoting use of substandard medicines. The state government must act against those responsible for this heinous crime.”

Reporting another scam, the CAG report has revealed that various hospitals of the state, including the Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) of Jammu and Srinagar have not been maintaining utilisation records of medicines procured during the past five years. These medicines, as per the report, are worth Rs 108 crore.