Hospital internal committee begins probe, removes five pharmacy staff

LUCKNOW: After three persons were arrested for selling drugs meant for KGMU patients in the open market, a probe may bring into light the nexus of some university officials and drug retailers in the alleged fraud.

King George Medical University (KGMU) has instituted an internal committee to conduct an inquiry into the alleged sale of medicines provided by the hospital revolving fund (HRF) pharmacy to drug stores owned by private individuals. The probing committee met on Friday.

“While checking bills and stocks, it was noticed that bills for several medicines issued in the past two days were not generated. This can be crucial in the probe,” said a KGMU official.

On Thursday, Uttar Pradesh Special task force (UP STF) arrested three persons, including a salesman of the pharmacy, and seized several boxes of tablets, syrups and injectable medicines worth over Rs 2 lakh. These drugs were bought from the HRF pharmacy at a discount of up to 60%.

The probe committee comprises Dr HS Pahwa (faculty in-charge of HRF), Prof Vijay Kumar (HoD plastic surgery), Dr Anuradha Nishchal, Dr Lakshay Yadav, Prof SN Sankhwar (KGMU chief medical superintendent), and KGMU registrar and proctor.

In its first meeting, the committee decided to remove the arrested salesman, Rajneesh Kumar, and four other contractual staff deployed at the pharmacy. The staff’s names were taken by Rajneesh during his questioning.

How was the ‘fraud’ executed The staff at the pharmacy took pictures of unique health identification (UHID) numbers of patients printed on the OPD slips.

The UHID numbers were used to generate fake bills for medicines.

If a drug was priced Rs 100, the same was issued from the KGMU pharmacy for Rs 40 since the drugs are sold at a discount of up to 60%.

Later, the drugs were sold to retailers with a profit margin.

The ‘fraud’ avoided to catch attention for the past four years, Rajneesh, the key accused, reportedly told STF after his arrest.