Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital deny alleged use of expired reagents

The Management of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on Thursday said its laboratory tests were reliable and valid and denied the use of expired reagents to conduct laboratory investigations.

“The public should, therefore, disregard reports in sections of the media that seek to create the impression that the hospital uses expired reagents to conduct investigations in its laboratories”.

In a statement signed by Mr Mustapha Salifu, Head of Public Relations copied to the GNA in Accra, the management said it placed an order for reagents through its usual processes during the fourth quarter of 2011, and due to some delays, they were delivered on January 25, 2012.

Upon inspection on receipt by the Supplies Department, it was detected that some of the reagents would be expiring in March, this year.

The statement said with this information, management informed the supplier for replacement of those that would expire before they could be used, which it readily agreed and had taken the necessary steps to replace them.

“At the time that the reagents were supplied, some of the laboratory machines (analysers) were not functioning and it took the supplier a lot of time to fly in technicians to repair and service them.

"By the time the analysers were repaired, some of the reagents (18 per cent and not 89.2 per cent as stated in the media) had expired.”

It explained that the reagents in question were for hormones and normally had short shelf life which could not conform to the usual 18 months.

The statement said some of the reports stated that more than GH¢33,044 worth of laboratory reagents had gone waste at the stores.

However, the reagents being referred to were supplied in 2004 by a company that had some contractual disagreement with the management; therefore it had to procure new analysers to operate its laboratory investigations.

The company, whose products management had discontinued using, failed to collect their reagents and no losses were incurred in respect of those reagents.

“The procurement processes and procedures at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital are transparent and no individual can short-circuit the system to his or her advantage. The process of re-ordering of reagents is always generated by the user department and management has no hand in that process.

“It is therefore, not true that the CEO and some officials in the hospital are engaged in fraudulent procurement practices. There is also no evidence that some officials are engaged in the manipulation and forgery of documents to fleece the hospital."

The statement challenged anyone with evidence contrary to what management had stated to come forward or invite the appropriate State agencies to investigate the allegations.**