BALANGIR: Exposing the careless attitude of health authorities, children in the paediatric ward of Balangir district headquarters hospital (DHH) were administered expired saline bottles by nurses on Wednesday.
An attendant of a patient found the nurse administering saline that had crossed its expiry date to a child. It was later found that the expired saline bottles were given to three more patients in the paediatric ward. The expiry date of the salines was November, 2017. After the incident was brought to the notice of DHH authorities, the expired saline bottles were immediately withdrawn. As the bottles were said to be supplied from the central store of the DHH, the authorities immediately locked the storeroom.
Sources said the situation could have worsened if the attendant had failed to detect the expiry date of the saline bottles. CDMO Sugyanendra Mishra said four expired saline bottles were detected. While three were being administered to patients, one was still in the storeroom, he added.