Benue Teaching Hospital destroys expired drugs worth N200m

Chief Medical Director of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, Dr Stephen Hwande monitored the burning of expired drugs within the hospital premises.

The expired drugs which belonged to the Teaching Hospital were said to have been kept at the drug store at the Muhammad Buhari Mother and Child Hospital in Makurdi, were set ablaze within the premises of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, located along Gboko road, Makurdi.

Hwande, who spoke to newsmen during the destruction of the expired drugs, expressed concern about why the past management of the hospital allowed the drugs to expire without dispensing them to people.

According to the CMD,  “These are drugs acquired by the hospital to be used by the hospital for the patients. So why did they abandon the drugs to the point of expiration, no one can say.

“When you get drugs with short dates, you can convey some of these drugs to other hospitals for instance, we have Internally Displaced Persons camps you can give them, hospitals and you can even do medical outreach with the drugs before they expired.

“There is no reason you should have drugs worth this amount of money expiring in this hospital when the whole state is in need of drugs.

“To keep our record straight because sometimes people may even go to the store and still use them so we decided to destroy the drugs.

“What is surprising is that you have drugs running to millions and you privatize and leave the drugs. The areas that have been privatized, like Radiology, have been written off.

Dr Hwande said that the destroyed drugs range from antibiotics, anti-hypertensive, anti-malaria, including consumables like iodine, bandages, urine bags, just as he said that the expired drugs could form a big pharmacy in the capital city.

The CMD further said that unclaimed 100 corpses were in the hospital morgue, adding that the hospital had written to the State Commissioner of Police to grant permission to dispose off the corpses.

He said, “On assumption of office,, I went round the stores and I discovered drugs worth over N200 million and consumables in the stores. I also discovered over 100 unclaimed corpses in the morgue.