Scandal: Hospital, expired medicaments
27/10/2011 00:00
Linda Rama: Between Family, Work and Albania’s Future 18/08 14:30
The investigation team of the Health Ministry and Directory of the
University Hospital Center has noted abuses with medicines to a value of
1 million EUR.
The abuses have not been made only at the Oncological Hospital, but also in other services within the biggest hospital center of the country. This time, the crime is related with the purchase of medicaments near expiration.
“We have found an amount of medicaments hidden at the Oncological service, on base of which the prosecution extended the investigation. There are many deficiencies with the expired medicine, which are being kept in the hospital storage rooms without being eliminated, offering this way abuses. We have noticed medicaments that have been bought without a destination, which means that who has violated the rules by not managing the medicaments according the protocol will be held responsible not only in front of the administration, but also the court”, declared the director of Health Policies, Pëllumb Pipero.
He also added that the inspection is underway and there will be other punishments, depending on the violations.
Two other doctors arrested
A few weeks after two doctors of the Oncological Hospital ended up in prison for stealing medicaments, the Task Force Unit closed the investigations for another scandal at this hospital.
The nurse in charge, Arentina Arifaj and the pharmacist Margarita Kola were reported on power abuse charges. They’re accused of stealing pricy medicaments for serious illnesses, such as cytostatic drugs used in chemotherapy.
The Prosecutor Julian Xhengo says that they have made a control at the Oncological Hospital, concluding it by separating 153 patient charts, 68 of which came from the chemotherapy pavilion.
The investigations resulted with differences among the cytostatic drugs that had circulated in the pharmacy, with a value of 1 million ALL. Top Channel has secured the Prosecution’s request to court, which states that the defendant Arenita Arifaj has violated the protocol by taking in her possession a considerable number of clinical charts and registers, in order to avoid investigation. The documentation was taken as proof only after a police intervention.
Experts say that the Pharmacist Margarita Kola has released drugs with a value of 1.4 million ALL more than the medicines inscribed in the charts. Pharmacist Hysni Bajrami is also under investigation for abusing with expensive drugs, while three other doctors are being investigated for not reporting a crime and theft.
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