Jan Aushadhi medicines found hidden in bathroom of Amritsar civil hospital

ACCORDING TO INITIAL FINDINGS, THE MEDICINES WERE BEING ILLEGALLY SOLD AT INFLATED RATES WITHOUT ISSUING BILLS TO THE PATIENTS

AMRITSAR: The health department on Saturday discovered Jan Aushadhi medicines, worth over Rs 1.5 lakh, hidden in the bathroom of the Amritsar civil hospital.

As per initial findings, the medicines were being illegally sold at inflated rates without issuing bills to the patients. The computer records were also allegedly distorted to hide the actual sales. The hand of some officials of the Jan Aushadhi department and a data entry operator is being suspected. As the Jan Aushadhi stores are run by the Indian Red Cross Society, the role of its officials will also be looked into.

Earlier on July 12, three pharmacists of the department, Sachin Arora, Baljeet Singh and Amanpreet Singh, had been terminated from services after the Red Cross found that the department had been in losses for long.

Rakesh Sharma, chairman of the Employees Welfare Association of the health department, said, “We have requested the deputy commissioner to order a probe into the matter. The audit report and computer records should be checked to see if they match. We found that the data entry operator was the only person who used to sell the medicines even though it was not his job. We don’t know how long this has been going on.”

He added, “This is a big scam. Poor people who come here to get treatment at affordable rates but are fleeced while purchasing medicines.”

Senior medical officer Dr Chander Mohan said, “After discovering the medicines hidden in the bathroom, we formed a committee to probe how many medicines were pilfered from the Jan Aushadhi department and how many were bought from outside.”