…to dispose over 100 unclaimed corpses
Unused expired drugs and consumables worth over N200 million naira stashed at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital store have been destroyed by the hospital management.
Nigeriacrime.com also gathered that the hospital is also taking steps to dispose of over 100 unclaimed corpses abandoned in its morgue.
The new Chief Medical Director, CMD, of the tertiary hospital, Dr. Stephen Hwande who led his management team to set the expired drugs and consumables ablaze, weekend in Makurdi, expressed shock that drugs worth so much were left to rot in the store of the hospital.
He said he discovered the expired drugs and consumables while undertaking an inspection of the Teaching Hospital shortly after taking over as the CMD two weeks ago.
Hear him: “After I assumed office some two weeks ago, I went round and discovered that over N200 million worth of drugs had expired in the store. We also found over 100 unclaimed corpses in the morgue. These are eyesores that affect the hospital setting.
“To get the records straight we decided to destroy the drugs in keeping with the best practices. Now, what is surprising is that these are drugs that were acquired by the government to be used by the hospital for patients. So why were they abandoned to the point of expiration, nobody can say.
“The practice is that when you get drugs with short dates, you can convey some of the drugs to other hospitals for usage. We also have Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and camps. You can take them to such camps for usage before they expire. You can give them to General Hospitals or Primary Healthcare Centres before they expire or you can even do medical outreach with the drugs before they expire.
“So there is no reason why you should have lots of drugs worth millions of Naira expiring in this hospital when the whole state is in want and need of drugs. So we decided to destroy them because some people can still to the store and decide to use them.”
Continuing, Dr. Kwande said “It is also surprising that some sections of the hospital like the pharmacy was privatised and the drug was left to expire. What we have here are every kind of drug including consumables.
“What we are destroying here can form a very big pharmacy. In fact with this kind and quantity of drugs, you can form the biggest pharmacy even in Makurdi. The biggest pharmacies in town don’t even have most of these drugs.
“We discovered that some of the drugs were procured by the hospital, some through contracts, some were brought in by people for whatever reasons and they were in the store but we are disposing of them. And they are worth over N200 million.
“And as for the unclaimed corpses, we have written to the Benue State Police Commissioner to give us the permission to dispose of them.”
The CMD who said he had a mandate from Governor Hyacinth Alia to reposition the hospital for better service delivery assured that all partnerships the hospital had entered into that had not been in line with the best practices would be discarded.