Police called in at Suddie Hospital to probe disappearance of drugs

Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 March 2017, 14:31 by Denis Chabrol

Several persons have been implicated in the alleged disappearance of a large quantity of drugs that were allocated to the Suddie Public Hospital, Essequibo Coast, the Ministry of Public Health said.

Divisional Commander, Superintendent K. Pareshram said two pharmacist assistants and one ambulance driver were arrested and subsequently released on GYD$20,000 bail each.  He said searches were carried out on their homes but nothing was found.

Pareshram said investigators were probing links in Georgetown and Essequibo.

Authorities said police were called in after a Task Force visited the medical institution and staff members there could not account or several items sent only last week by the Materials Management Unit (MMU).

Among those implicated is the pharmacist.  “In one instance the Pharmacist at the hospital could not have given account for several ampules of petidine, codeine and morphine,” the Health Ministry said.

The items were not reported as missing to the Regional Health Officer, the Public Health Ministry said, adding that the Dangerous Drugs Register was last updated 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,” the Health Ministry added.

The Health Ministry added that the MMU stated 10 items on the list of drugs destined for the Suddie Hospital “either never arrived” or significantly less was received than was sent. They included  100 boxes of the drugs Simvastatin, 108 bottles of paracetamol suspension and 20 of the 1,000 Ampicillin 500 milligrams sent disappeared.

The MMU senior official said all 20, 000 disposable gloves “sent for the hospital were also stolen,” the ministry added.