Hospital flooded, medicines spoiled

Hospital flooded, medicines spoiled

More than 100 cartons of medicine kept in the basement of a government hospital in Sector 10 were destroyed due to the heavy rain. Water entered the underground warehouse following two days of continuous rain in the city.

A waterlogged stretch in Sector 29. (PARVEEN KUMAR/HT PHOTOS)

As heavy rain lashed the city on Thursday and Friday, the warehouse had knee-deep water by Saturday morning, when the authorities started removing the medicine cartons from there.

The medicines kept at the warehouse are sent to five districts in the state— Gurgaon, Mewat, Rewari, Palwal and Narnaul.

According to the staff of the hospital, some of the boxes of medicine were brought to the upper floors of the hospital on Friday. But by Saturday morning, the entire basement was flooded and the remaining medicines had to be brought into the hospital in a hurry.

A similar situation was witnessed during the monsoon last year as well.

However, civil surgeon Dr Pushpa Bishnoi said that the medicines were not destroyed. “I have spoken to the in-charge of the warehouse and all medicines have been moved from the basement. The shifting has been taking place since yesterday, when water started to fill the place. No medicines, except a few bottles, were spoilt,” Pushpa Bishnoi said.

She said that a team from the health department, including a biomedical expert, visited the warehouse on Friday and gave their approval for the transfer of medicines to the HAFED warehouse.

This warehouse is located near the grain market on the Khandsa Road.

The medicines were kept at the hospital basement as a temporary arrangement. There is no permanent storage facility for the medicines supplied to the five southern Haryana districts.