Police probing missing drugs, fraud at Suddie Hospital

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has been called in to investigate the disappearance of several pharmaceutical drugs and alleged fraud at the Suddie Public Hospital in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).
According to the Public Health Ministry, these and several other issues were discovered on Monday during a one-day visit by the Ministerial Task Force.
The Hospital authorities could not account for the items that were delivered only last Tuesday by the Materials Management Unit (MMU).
The Police were told that the pharmacist at the Hospital could not account for several ampules of pethidine, codine and morphine. Additionally, the missing drugs were not reported to the Regional Health Officer.
The team also found instances where the stock of narcotic-based drugs either never arrived or could not be accounted for, and the pharmacist had extra drugs that were still not recorded as prescribed under the law.
Other irregularities unearthed during the Task Force’s visit included the fact the Dangerous Drugs Register was not updated, with the last entry made sometime in 2015.
A MMU staffer confirmed Tuesday that 10 items on the list of drugs destined for the Suddie Hospital “either never arrived” or significantly less was received than was sent.
For example, all 100 boxes of the drug Simvastatin disappeared before arriving at the Hospital. Each box contained 100 of the drug.
The official said too that “all 108 bottles of the Paracetamol suspension” also vanished, as well as 20 of the 1000 Ampicillin 500mg tablets sent.
The MMU senior official said all 20,000 pairs of disposable gloves sent to the Hospital were also stolen.Charity Hospital, another health institution in the Pomeroon/Supenaam, has also been hit with drug shortages. According to reports, a shortage of essential drugs has left patients with nothing but prescriptions to purchase the medication privately.
And according to reports, children have predominantly been affected by this shortage. When Regional Health Officer Afarah Khan and a team of Regional councilors recently visited the Charity Health Centre, the doctor in charge reported that there were shortages of drugs primarily for infants.
The doctor reported that Panadol syrup and other baby medications were not in supply at the centre, and patients normally return to the centre in worse condition than they had been in previous visits, thus the situation needs to be remedied soonest.
In addition, Chairman of the Region’s Health and Sanitation Committee, Arnold Adams, had reported that a major drugs shortage exists at the Suddie Public Hospital, thus that institution is unable to supply the Charity Health Centre with drugs.
Adams had said that numerous unsuccessful requests were made to have the situation rectified, and he had called on the Public Health Ministry to intervene and have drugs supplied to the Suddie Public Hospital in a timely manner, as residents cannot afford to purchase over-the-counter medications.
When Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, had sought to explain her role in an attempt to sole source $605M in drugs from Ansa McAl; she had said that police had to be called in to deal with staff selling drugs to private pharmacies.