Vanishing act: The curious case of the ‘stolen’ injections

Three blood-cancer patients lose expensive vials to a mysterious refrigerator.

ISLAMABAD:

The vanishing act at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) is becoming a norm. From the missing doctors to short-on supply drugs the largest referral hospital of the country has upped the ante for the under-treatment patients.

For the third time now, a poor and a needy patient of blood cancer, at the Pims has been deprived of an expensive medicine. The victims of the deadly disease, who have come from far-flung areas, are being treated in the Medical Ward-III of the hospital under the aegis of Pakistan Baitul Mal. With the missing medicines, which have to be nursed intravenously, their treatment is not being helped in any manner.

Talking to The Express Tribune, an attendant of a 15-year-old patient from Attock said he had to buy the vial for Rs3,400, only to have it “stolen” from the hospital refrigerator.

He was asked by a doctor to place it in the refrigerator, which is placed near the nursing, to prevent the medicine from losing its efficacy. “Half an hour later when I checked, the medicines were missing, I was shocked and asked everyone including the medical staff there but nobody knew,” he said.

Earlier, a 75-year-old blood cancer patient from Attock had a similar story to share. Medicine worth Rs114,000 went missing from the refrigerator, where the nursing staff and other attendants also have access.

Another attendant of a blood cancer patient from Gilgit-Baltistan lost a Rs8,000 injection to the same refrigerator.

Initially, the attendants of these patients thought the injection were missing and reported the matter to the senior oncologist on duty, who clearly told them that they had been stolen. “This is a common practice here,” he said.

A convenient reality for the oncologist will turn out to be a lot of hassle for these patients, who will now have to go through the bureaucratic grind of Baitul Mal to acquire the funds again.

They will have to go through the entire process and acquire the signatures of all the relevant officials which might take a lot of time. There is a chance of being refused as well. Naturally, the procedure causes delay in the treatment.

“”Where should we go, we are very poor, we hardly managed to bear the expenses of travelling to Islamabad and such things add to our woes,” said an attendant.

Talking to The Express Tribune one of the medical staffs in the hospital, on the condition of anonymity, said stealing medicines from the hospital is a common practice. Those who are getting treatment under Zakat funds are the preferred targets. These medicines are then taken and sold out in the market, he said.

When contacted Pims Executive Director, Mehmood Jamal said that he was not aware of any such happenings at the largest referral hospital of the country. “However I will look into the matter,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th,  2011.