Massive fraud discovered at Suddie Hospital as drugs sent last week goes missing

According to a Ministry of Health statement, during the Task Force’s one-day visit to the Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) health institution, several other irregularities were unearthed.

Massive fraud discovered at Suddie Hospital as drugs sent last week goes missing

The Guyana Police Force has been called in to investigate a massive fraud at the Suddie Public Hospital.

The Ministerial Task Force visited the hospital yesterday and the authorities there could not account for several items that were sent last Tuesday by the Materials Management Unit (MMU) of the Health Ministry.

The missing items were not reported to the Regional Health Officer (RHO).

According to a Ministry of Health statement, during the Task Force’s one-day visit to the Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) health institution, several other irregularities were unearthed.

In one instance the Pharmacist at the hospital could not have given account for several ampules of pethidine, codine and morphine.

In another, the Dangerous Drugs Register was not up-to-date, with the last entry being made in 2015.

The team also found instances where the stock of narcotic drugs either could not be accounted for and the pharmacist had extra drugs that were still not recorded as prescribed under the law.

An 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 drugs Simvastatin disappeared before arriving at the hospital. Each box contained 100 of the drugs”, the statement said.

The official said too that “all 108 bottles of the Paracetamol suspension” also vanished. The MMU employee disclosed that 20 of the 1,000 Ampicillin 500Mg sent disappeared.

The MMU senior official said the 20, 000 disposable gloves sent for the hospital were also stolen. A number of hospital and delivery staffers are to be questioned about the missing drugs.

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