DRUGS MELT AS GOVT DEPOTS FACE 'HEAT'

DRUGS MELT AS GOVT A CHENNAI resident, who is a regular visitor to the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children in aged tablets remains unresolved.

- SINDUJA JANE

A CHENNAI resident, who is a regular visitor to the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children in Egmore to get sodium valproate 200 mg tablets, an antiepileptic medicine for her seven-year-old child, has often been facing the problem of receiving tablets that are gooey in state. At least two or three tablets in every strip will be damaged, she said. Concerned over the efficacy and quality of these tablets, she sent a C mail a few months ago to Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC), the nodal agency that procures and supplies medicines to all government hospitals.

TNMSC responded quickly to her email, stating that they have issued a "stop-issue-cum-retrieve" order to all the warehouses for the particular batch of the medicine. While she is getting the same medicine manufactured by a different company now, the issue of damaged tablets remains unresolved.

Further enquiries by TNIE revealed that lack of air-conditioning or other temperature-monitoring systems in TNMSC warehouses and pharmacies in government hospitals may have caused the problem.

TNMSC has sent the samples of the batch of medicine reported by the resident, who does not want to be identified, to laboratory and the results are awaited. Meanwhile, many pharmacists in government hospitals said this was not an isolated case and such issues are reported by patients for different medicines. But formal complaints are a rarity, they said.