Aurangabad, May 22:
The inquiry committee, appointed by the deputy director (health), to probe the distribution of Remdesivir injections from District Civil Hospital (DCH) noticed overdosing of the injections beyond the protocol and irregularity in its distribution to the patients. There is a protocol to give six injections to each Coronavirus-infected patient.
It may be noted that 'Dainik Lokmat' in its local edition on April 14 had published news highlighting the disappearance of injections from the government hospital. Two days later, a gang was caught red-handed by police while trying to selling the injection at throw-away prices. A class fourth employee of DCH was also named for his involvement in the racket. Taking cognizance of it, the deputy director (health) formed a committee to conduct the inquiry. The committee visited the DCH and reviewed the details like the distribution of injections to patients and the actual number of injections given to the patients during the last month.
Protocol of six injections
As per protocol, each patient is given six injections. Two doses are given on the first day and one injection is administered daily for four consecutive days. Accordingly, it is expected that the distribution of injection should be made for the patients (as per the dosage schedule) in their wards. During the review, the committee detected the distribution of six injections to one patient at one time (which is wrong as per the protocol). In some cases, it found that many of them had been given seven to eight injections. The committee took these issues seriously. It also found a violation of its order of not collecting the vial of each injection after giving the dose to patients (in few cases). Meanwhile, the committee has not found the culprit in this irregularity. In one case the committee could not get a valid reason for one missing injection.
The civil surgeon Dr. S V Kulkarni said, " The doctors prepare dosage schedule of injections after reviewing the health condition of patients. The decision is based on medical reasons. Hence the doctors treating the patients would be able to answer to a question why extra injections were given."