MPs Grill Gulu Hospital Officials Over Expired Drugs

Members on the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament have questioned Gulu Referral Hospital officials over the expired drugs that the hospital has been using to treat its patients.

 

This was revealed in the Auditor General’s report which divulged that the drugs expired between the period of 2009 and 2010 due to poor storage facilities.

Through the report and the hospital officials, the MPs on the committee found out that drugs worth 6.2 billion got expired but the medical workers continued to use them to treat patients.

The delegation from the hospital led by the director Nathan Onyaki admitted that the drugs expired and they unknowingly continued to be given to patients.

Onyaki said that the time the drugs got expired the hospital was in a bad state and that all buildings were almost collapsing hence not good enough to store the drugs.

He said all the buildings were built in 1934 and had never been renovated so hospital officials did not have any options as far as drug storage was concerned.

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The chairman of the committee Kassiano Wadri said that people could have even lost their lives due to the expired drugs.

The director denied that any people lost their lives but said the number of patients increased because the drugs they were being given were ineffective.

He however assured the MPs that the problem was solved after the renovation of the buildings and that National Medical Stores replaced the expired drugs.