Kasaragod: 15-Year-Old Given Expired Medicines At Clinic, Family Complains!

A government hospital pharmacy handed out expired antibiotic tablets to a teenager. The boy took the prescribed medicine for three days straight. The family noticed the expiry date only after that and raised an alarm.

Kasaragod: A family has accused a local family health centre in Kasaragod of handing out expired medicines to a 15-year-old boy. The teenager visited the Paivalike Bayar family health centre to get treatment for a toe allergy. The hospital pharmacy gave him antibiotic medicines that had already expired back in July.

The boy took the doctor-prescribed medicine for three whole days. The family checked the label and noticed the expiry date only after that. The parents immediately went back to the hospital to report this. The family claims that the doctor just brushed off the issue and treated it like a minor thing. The angry parents then filed an official complaint with the District Medical Officer (DMO).

This incident happens right when patients across the state are struggling to get life-saving drugs at government hospitals. The medicine shortage is getting worse every day. Hospitals are facing a severe lack of medicines for lifestyle diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. Drugs needed for chemotherapy and epilepsy are also out of stock.

The government has told hospitals to buy medicines locally so that the public does not find out about the shortage. But private distributors are refusing to supply medicines and medical equipment to government hospitals because of massive unpaid bills. The health department says that fresh stock will reach the hospitals by next week. Hospital officials have warned the department that things will get completely out of hand if the new stock does not arrive by next week.