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Propofol drug row: PGIMER serves notice to pvt pharmacy on campus
Amid speculation that being administered with the Propofol drug led to the death of five patients at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) last week, the hospital’s administration on Thursday issued a show-cause notice to the private chemist shop at the institute’s emergency block from where the drug was procured by patients’ attendants
Amid speculation that being administered with the Propofol drug led to the death of five patients at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) last week, the hospital’s administration on Thursday issued a show-cause notice to the private chemist shop at the institute’s emergency block from where the drug was procured by patients’ attendants.
A joint team of drug inspectors from the Chandigarh administration and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation had taken samples from the pharmacy and the report is expected in around four weeks.
Propofol is an anesthetic drug administered to patients before any major surger. According to information, it is suspected that five people who had undergone orthopaedic and neurosurgeries had died after the drug was inoculated to them. On deliberating the cause of deaths, doctors found Propofol injection as the common ground to investigate the death of the patients.
“The show-cause notice has been served to M/s Gupta Medicos, the chemist shop at emergency block, as per the terms and conditions of the licence deed which mandates sale of quality products, medicines and drugs. Breach of these conditions entail cancellation of licence, as products are required to conform to rules and laws of the Union government,” the institute said.
As per the institute, Gupta Medicos has been directed to explain their position within a week, starting from Thursday, regarding the sale of drug and why action may not be taken against them as per terms and conditions of the license deed.
PGIMER had earlier released a statement which said that on September 1, a matter regarding health complications in post-operative period in a few patients over the past few days, was brought to the notice of the institute’s medical superintendent by two department heads. “An urgent meeting was convened immediately, which was duly attended by senior faculty from multiple departments. Taking an extremely serious view of the situation, a high-level committee was constituted by PGIMER director Dr Vivek Lal under the chairmanship of SK Gupta, head, department of neurosurgery, to thoroughly investigate this incident.
The UT health department had also withdrawn the drugs of the same batch from the hospitals and pharmacists in Chandigarh.
