Expired medicines found dumped at Khot BHU

CHITRAL, March 30: Expired medicines were recovered from the Basic Health Unit (BHU) in Khot. The BHU is managed under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Programme formerly PPHI (People’s Primary Health Initiative) project. These medicines are supplied to all health units under the national programme for population planning and primary healthcare which are onward issued to lady health workers. Elemental Zinc (yes 2 Zinc) worth rupees 50 and expired in March 2014 were found in BHU Khot premises along with some registers and record of LHWs. Former nazim union council Khot Sher Aziz Baig expressed concerns over the recovery of these medicines. He said that actually the medicines were issued to LHWs and they were bound to distribute these free medicines among the patients and people of their areas during door-to-door visits and health education campaigns. He said that it means that they did not perform their duty and failed to distribute these medicines among the people. They also did not impart health education among the masses. This was one of the reasons the pneumonia outbreak in the area could not be checked which claimed the lives of 14 children. A lady health visitor of the Aga Khan Health Service (AKHS) centre at Khot told this scribe regarding the criteria of returning the expired medicines. She said that they informed their immediate medical officer six months befor the expiry date and returned them two months later. But unfortunately in the government hospital neither their officers were informed nor the medicines were returned timely. As a result, not only the government exchequer faced heavy loss but also the deserving patients (children) were deprived of their right to get these medicines. A woman from Khot revealed that the Lady Health Workers seldom visited their houses. She said that they distributed only worms among the children. When district health officer Dr. Israrullah was contacted, he first tried to fully support the health team but later admitted that this was wrong, adding why these free medicines were stored even after expiry. “But all our BHUs are working under the KPH (PPHI) and this is the responsibility of their doctors to monitor and ensure the distribution of these free medicines among the masses. He said that he will issue notice to the district support manager of KPHI (PPHI) to explain this negligence. When Haider Hussain, a medical technician, was asked to produce any of the 11 LHWs who were working in the area, he failed to show the presence of any and requested this correspondent again and again not to highlight it.]]>