SYLHET, Feb 02: An official investigation committee established recently that fifteen types of essential medicines worth Tk 24 million were expired at the Sunamganj 250 bed District Sadar Hospital in 2024.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) & District Magistrate Dr. Mohammad Ilias Mia placed the investigation committee report before the district law and order committee on Sunday and decided that it would be sent to the anti-corruption commission (ACC).
The thre-member investigation committee, headed by the additional district magistrate, was formed on the order of the DC in 2024. The meeting was also informed that the investigation committee had not gotten the required support from the hospital authorities during their investigation.
The hospital's patients and their relatives claimed that the medicines, allocated for free distribution among the patients, had expired because those were hoarded.
In 2024, the hospital authorities were compelled to form a 10-member investigation committee. Sources could not be reached for further information on the committee's progress. An ACC team visited the hospital in that year and detected various issues, including medicine shortage, according to Ainul Islam, ACC public prosecutor, Sunamganj, and member of the district's law and order committee.
Sunamganj Public Prosecutor Advocate Mollik Moinuddin Sohel, another member of the committee, said, after media reports were published regarding the incident in that year, the hospital officials failed to show any document about how these medicines ended up in the hospital's godown.
The initial ACC investigation at that time also found that some medicines were smuggled outside of the hospital, ACC sources said.
It was also revealed that although there was one storekeeper, seven worked at the store, including a medical technician and a senior staff nurse. The investigation committee's recent report also found various irregularities in the tender process and in the receipt and delivery of medicines, according to the discussants at the district law and order committee meeting recently.
Sunamganj Deputy Commissioner Dr. Mohammad Ilyas Mia said that the investigation committee had found the media reports on expired medicine true and this matter was discussed in the law and order meeting.
Dr. Mahbubur Rahman, the hospital superintendent said that he had joined in March 2024. At one point, he added that Dr. Md. Anisur Rahman was in-charge when the incident took place.
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