K-P inspectors find 610 medicines substandard

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Director Drugs Dr Abbass on Sunday said that the Directorate General Drugs Control and Pharmacy Services (DCPS) has declared 610 medicines against medical standards.

He said that on the directives of Director General DCPS, the performance report of the directorate for the year 2022 was issued the other day.

According to the report, the teams of DCPS inspected 14,803 medical stores out of which 2,449 stocks of medicines were seized during the year.

Furthermore, samples of a total of 10,351 medicines were examined across the province out of which 460 drugs were declared substandard and 150 medicines spurious.

FIRs were lodged against 35 persons over violating the drug act while 375 medical stores were sealed last year.

Similarly, a total of 2,156 cases were lodged in drug courts out of which 488 were decided. DCPS also imposed fines of Rs120 million during the same period, the report added.

It has been reported in the past that hundreds of companies producing substandard medicines are pumping their products into the marketplace, which may be injurious to consumers’ health.

Some businesses, it is alleged, are importing medicines which are labelled as food items and then sold through doctors’ prescriptions, with the help of regulators. According to PEW, many doctors prescribe costly and substandard medicines to patients and get unnecessary tests conducted on them in order to gain commission.

Financial gain is taking precedence over the health of patients, they said. Social activists have called upon the government and civil society to launch awareness programmes for patients.

Organised crime against humanity should be stopped in the medical profession, healthcare institutions, private clinics and pharmaceutical companies, they said.

KTH nursery short of beds

The nursery section of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) has been facing a severe shortage of beds for infant patients. As a result, it has asked the administration not to admit more patients.

Sources told The Express Tribune that there are just 40 beds available in the nursery section while they were receiving many more patients. As a result they have to allocate one bed to three children, which causes great inconvenience.

“The oxygen points are already occupied to full capacity and there is no more space in high dependency as well as premature children section,” said an official, adding that the administration has been informed that currently there are 62 kids under treatment in nursery wards and 29 of them are already on oxygen. Nineteen premature kids are also being treated.

“There are no more free oxygen points in HDU and premature ward as all of them are occupied. Similarly, jaundice room is already full to capacity,” he said.

“If we admit more patients then the treatment of the current children would be completely hampered which is very dangerous. If we shift the under-treatment children to somewhere else, it could pose a life threat to them,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2023.