CHENNAI: The belated supply of various drugs, which have a short shelf life, to the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) resulted in medicines worth Rs 11.12 crore expiring while in stock itself from 2016-21. This was revealed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its audit report on the performance of the health department.
According to the CAG, as many as 185 manufacturers supplied the TNMSC with 1,447 drugs that were produced much earlier than the stipulated 30-day window prior to supply. This production window is mandated in the tender conditions, failing which, the supplier was required to replace the expired quantity with stock having a longer shelf life.
The CAG report noted that the suppliers replaced the expired items only 13 times after 2016, and 10 of these instances relate to the period 2020-2021 or later. “The TNMSC failed to fix responsibility on the suppliers for the belated supply,” it said.
Referring to this issue in August 2022, the state government had stated that the condition could not be strictly adhered to owing to ‘various reasons’. It, however, added that TNMSC was proactively monitoring the activities from 2021 onwards.
The CAG has also found that quality analysis was not conducted for the stocks in warehouse. From 2016-2021, there were 13,922 instances of drugs lying in the warehouses for more than six months not being sent for quality testing.
The TNMSC did not procure and store several essential drugs and medicines in warehouses, leading to the non-availability of adequate treatment options in government healthcare facilities, the CAG report added.
Distributions in the supply chain management of drugs and medicines of TNMSC had impacted the availability of some medicines in sampled hospitals. It further pointed out that large numbers of equipment were in disrepair despite the availability of a system for annual maintenance contracts.
