Workers of the hospital found those unused medicines in a room nearby the DHO's store.
The life saving drugs, worth nearly half a million rupees, were found in decaying condition at the premises of Karnali Institute of Health Science Teaching Hospital, according to workers. Nearly half of the medicines stored were found burnt.
Vitamin B-Complex, Jeevan Jal, Metron and RL Injection were among the expired drugs found at the DHO.
Ironically, local health centers outside the district headquarters have been facing shortage of life saving drugs, said Rishikesh Upadhyay, Assistant Health Worker at health post of Pandav Gupha.
Lack of funds to transport the valuable drugs to local health centers located in the remote parts of the district has caused the medicines to rot at the storage, according to the health worker Upadhyay.
"While submitting monthly progress report to the DHO, we clearly mention the quantity of medicine stored at the health posts along its expiration status," said he. "Sometimes, the DHO itself sends expired medicines to us."
Both the DHO officials and in-charge of health centers at local level are equally responsible for the damage, Upadhyay argued. On one hand, the health officials at district level cite shortage of budget to deliver the drugs to local health centers, on the other hand, health in-charges at respective health centers attach no importance to its supply. As a result, medicines at the storage of the DHO often have to be dumped.
Harka Bahadur Mahat, an office assistant at the DHO, told Republica that the expiration of large quantity of medicines is the result of its delayed delivery from the regional medical store itself. Mahat, who has also worked as a storekeeper for some time, said that the medicines had expired before they are transported to the district.
As per the regulation, the medicines when found expired have to be disposed in a proper way following the decision of district level disposal committee. However, it was apparent that health officials of the DHO had tried to dispose the medicines without following the due procedures, locals alleged.
The patients and caretakers said they could smell the burning medicines during the night.
Had the valuable drugs been expired, the DHO should have informed the local stakeholders before burnt them, said Nawaraj Neupane, a local.
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