Despite several complaints by railway employees unions, the sub-divisional railway hospital here continues to allegedly provide expired medicines to patients.
In a fresh case, an employee at Electric Loco Shed Railways has alleged that the medicine provided by the railway hospital was expired.
“My hand got injured when I was working with a hammer while on duty on Thursday. I felt extreme pain in my hand, which had swollen. I therefore visited the railway hospital where a doctor prescribed me medicine for 10 days. But the medicine, Pepzol, given by a hospital staff carried an expiry date of October 2013,” claimed Brij Lal.
Daljit Singh, divisional secretary of Northern Railway Men's Union, said, “I had talked to hospital officials regarding issuance of expiry medicines to the patients last month. We had asked them not to keep any medicine, which is going to be expire in a month as several cases of expired medicines had come to light.”
The retired railway employees also claim that they are being provided substandard medicines.
MS Gill, president of the city unit of the All-India Retired Railway Men's Federation, alleged, “We had recently staged a protest against the authorities as substandard medicines were being provided to us at the hospital. The railway authorities have failed to take any step so far to redress our problems. Earlier two cases of providing expiry medicines had also been reported.”
{{/usCountry}}MS Gill, president of the city unit of the All-India Retired Railway Men's Federation, alleged, “We had recently staged a protest against the authorities as substandard medicines were being provided to us at the hospital. The railway authorities have failed to take any step so far to redress our problems. Earlier two cases of providing expiry medicines had also been reported.”
{{/usCountry}}Denying the allegations, Dr Chetna Kapoor, senior divisional medical officer at the hospital, said, “We do not have any old stock of 'Pepzol 10' medicine. The medicines which were about to be expired have already been discarded. However, I will look into Brij Lal's case.”