Benue hospital destroys N200m expired drugs

The Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi, at the weekend, destroyed expired drugs worth N200 million.

The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of BSUTH, Dr Stephen Hwande, while fielding questions from journalists shortly after setting ablaze the expired drugs, said the public destruction of the expired drugs was necessary for him to start on a clean slate, expressing worry as to why medicines of such amount would be allowed to expire in a state that had so many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other hospitals that needed them.

He said, “What is happening here today is the destruction of expired drugs by BSUTH. I came in here two weeks ago with a mandate by Governor Hyacinth Alia to revamp and restore the dignity and confidence of this place.

“On assumption, I went around the stores and discovered drugs worth over N200m and other consumables in the stores. I also discovered over 100 unclaimed corpses in the morgue. What is surprising about this is that these are drugs acquired by the hospital to be used by the hospital for patients.

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“So, why did they abandon the drugs to the point of expiration? When you get drugs with short dates, you can convey some of them to other hospitals. For instance, we have IDP camps; you can give them and you can even do medical outreaches with the drugs before they expire.

“There is no reason why you should have drugs worth this amount expiring in this hospital when the whole state is in need of drugs. To keep our records straight because sometimes people may even go to the store and still use them, we decided to destroy the drugs.”