Expired ORS given to HIV positive patient
In a shocking incident, ORS that had long expired was given to a HIV positive patient, admitted in the MGM Medical College and Hospital.
The 30-year-old woman of Baridih area of the city on Monday said that she was admitted at the hospital on June 6 and ORS was being given to her daily and she discovered that the ORS has expired. She is suffering from AIDS from last three years.
The victim lodged the complaint with duty nurse and also with D P Shukla, president of Jamshedpur District level Network for People living with HIV/AIDS, an organisation for the welfare of the HIV/AIDS patients.
Meanwhile, Shukla said that it is a matter of great concern. “I myself went over to the medicine store and asked the nurse on duty to provide a packet of ORS. She gave me an ORS packet the expiry date of which was August, 2014. But when I showed the packet of expired ORS to the nurse and queried, the nurse said that some staff might have mistakenly given it to the patient”.
“ The patients of AIDS are getting step motherly treatment in hospital and we will lodge complain with the high authorities,” said victim’s husband.
There is an acute shortage of medicines in Government hospital, the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital. The hospital is running out of stock of medicines including life saving drugs.
Sources informed that most patients from across the district, especially those reaching the hospital at night, find the in-house pharmacy poorly equipped, which forces them to go looking for medicines.
In fact, a highly placed source in the hospital said that medicines, including life-saving anti-venom and anti-rabies injections, regularly run out of stock. Other commonly used medicines for controlling diabetes and hypertension such as Metformin and Atenolol, and Nisidipine respectively and even B-complex tablets and antibiotics are also in short supply.
Patients are the worst sufferers as they are forced to buy medicines from local market. While a small section of patients can only afford to buy medicines from outside while majority of them are languishing in different wards of the hospital, virtually without medicines.
The crisis of medicines began last week but for the last couple of days the problem has become acute.