Medication errors are not new in the hospitals and increasing day by day, to keep a check on this former senior manager (pharmacy) at the Bihar State Pharmaceuticals & Chemical Development Corporation Limited took a step forward. He has appealed all state health ministers to appoint pharmacists for drugs store in every state hospitals to shorten the risk of wrong medications that taking the lives of patients and children in government hospitals.
DSM(Drug Store Management) is currently controlled by non-pharmacists in many of the government healthcare institutions. Lack of qualified pharmacists to handle medicines leads to wrong medication incidents in several places.
On June 22, this year the incident reported at the Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital (MY Hospital) in Indore due to wrong medication. Dr. Roop Narayanan Gupta, from Jharkhand, said this tragedy could have been averted if the government had appointed qualified pharmacists at the drugs store management division in his letter to the health minister. He also mentioned in 2016, an eight-year-old boy died at the hospital due to use of nitrous oxide instead of oxygen mistakenly. Seventeen patients dead in the same hospital due to obstruction in oxygen supply.
Lack of poor management and drug related issues tragedies happening every time in government hospitals. Dr. Gupta tried to convince ministers to strengthen the drug store management system in government hospitals. A qualified pharmacist can take better care of the medicines as non-utilisation of drugs usually causes degradation and expired medicines need to be removed time by time. The best solution is the appointment of qualified pharmacists in hospitals.
