KOCHI: Levelling serious allegations against the health department, Leader of Opposition, V D Satheesan, has said that the Kerala State Medical Services Corporation Ltd (KMSCL) had committed serious lapses in examining the quality of medicines supplied to government hospitals across the state.
“The CAG report which exposed massive corruption in KMSCL after it supplied expired medicines worth crores of rupees is shocking. The corporation supplied expired medicines to 26 government hospitals. Medicines whose sale was frozen due to lack of quality were supplied to 482 hospitals. In addition, it supplied inferior quality medicines to 148 hospitals flouting the directive not to sell them,” he said while addressing a press conference in Kochi on Tuesday. The use of expired medicines can cause serious health issues and even loss of life, he added.
Satheesan alleged serious lapses on the part of the corporation in conducting quality checks of medicines.
“Of the 54,049 batches of drugs, only 8,700 were subjected to quality checks. No quality control checks were carried out on 46 types of medicines. Besides, not even a single drug from 14 suppliers was subjected to examinations. The chief minister and health minister seem to have approved all these illegal activities,” he said, demanding an impartial probe into the matter.
Responding to the queries on the alleged monthly payment row involving CM’s daughter, Satheesan said, Exalogic Solutions, the firm owned by CM’s daughter had received Rs 1.72 crore without providing any service to the CMRL and what happened was an attempt at money laundering.
“The chief minister should clarify whether the ED carried out an inquiry into the illegal payment or not,” he said.
Criticising the government’s inefficiency, Satheesan said that Supplyco is also facing the same fate as KSRTC as it is experiencing a financial crisis of over Rs 3,000 crore.
148 hospitals were supplied with inferior quality medicines, flouting the directive not to sell them, said Satheesan.