Tamale Teaching Hospital anaesthetists hot over expired drug claims

The management of the Tamale Teaching Hospital and the Food and Drugs Authority have mounted pressure on anesthetists at the facility to reveal the source of expired anaesthesia drugs that got their way into the hospital, and for which reason they attempted withdrawal of their services.

Chaos broke out at the facility last month when anaesthesia professionals refused to attend to patients after accusing management of providing expired drugs and enforcing its usage, pending fresh supplies.

Many patients reportedly suffered multiple complications and were treated at private facilities. The anaesthetics raised red flags after a week-long usage when data of affected patients began to rise.

They had claimed that four products – Etomidate, Neostigmine, Suxamethonium and Vecuronium had expired, but management insisted they should be administered on clients.

An investigation by the Food and Drugs Authority was quickly launched into the matter and after several weeks of the systematic inquiry, the authority has released its findings exonerating the Director of Pharmacy at the facility.

The FDA findings say the hospital pharmacy has good and available stock of all the products mentioned by the anaesthetists and acknowledged a robust software known as HAMS where products with proper codes were unable to be supplied after its expiration.

The report also said it noticed a huge variance in the badge number and expiring dates of the samples brought by the anaesthetists and management of the facility and explicitly stated that the expired products did not come from the hospital’s pharmacy.

The Etomidate injection was also found to be a foreign product never stocked by the hospital.

The development has angered management of the largest referral centre for the country’s North sparking aggressive moves to compel the anaesthetists to reveal how the expired products got into the facility.

“I want to put on record that we did not and have never supplied anybody including the Unit of anaesthesia with Etomidate injection and they must prove to us and the entire world and in particular, the good people of Ghana where that product came from; it’s a foreign product to the institution and they should let us know where it is coming from,” director of pharmacy Dr. Hamidu demanded.
The chief anesthetist could not be immediately reached for comment.