As more instances of Remedisivir black marketing comes to light, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has appointed flying squads to conduct checks and stop illegal selling of the antiviral drug.
The flying squads are set to start their inspections at the civic and private hospital from today. PCMC junior engineers and deputy engineers will be part of the squads.
“PCMC has given permission to private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients. However, it has been observed the Remdesivir injections in some hospitals are being misused. Patients are not getting injections on time. To keep control on the use of Remedesivir and ensure their proper utilisation, we have appointed flying squads,” PCMC commissioner Rajesh Patil said in a directive.
The PCMC chief said,”The number of patients who are hospitalised is on the higher side. At the same, we are also giving permission to new hospitals to treat COVID patients. However, we have found several shortcomings in the functioning of these hospitals. The unnecessary use of Remdesivir has also increased. This is resulting in shortage of the life saving drug.”
Joint City Engineer Shrikant Savane, who has been appointed as the coordinating officer said, “We will start scanning the hospitals in connection with the Remdesivir use. All the officers have been briefed as to how to carry out verification of the use of Remedisivir.”
In all, there are around 130 Covid hospitals functioning in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Savane said the district collectorate provides Remdesivir stock to hospitals. “The hospitals are supposed to strictly use the njections on the in-house patients. They are not supposed to provide it to outside patients. In some cases, staff of hospitals have been caught black-marketing the drug to outside patients. Our squads have to be asked to verify the stock given to the hospital with the actual use on the patients. The collectorate also provides the copy of its order regarding the issue of Remdesivir to each hospital to the civic health department. We will cross-check the stock with the hospital with the actual issue of Remdesivir by the collectorate and its use for patients,” he said.
Recently, one of the PCMC employees from the civic run Auto Cluster Covid hospital was caught black-marketing Remdesivir injections. He was arrested by the police. This incident has hastened the scrapping of civic body’s contract with a private party which ran the Auto Cluster Covid hospital.
PCMC health officials said some hospitals force families of patients to purchase Remdesivir from outside. “This is a wrong practice. The collectorate has already issued an order in this connection, clearly stipulating that it is the responsibility of the hospital concerned to ensure availability of Remdesivir. The hospital should not make families run around. If any hospital is found doing this, families should bring it to the notice of the civic or district officials.”
Meanwhile, the PCMC has decided to purchase 10,000 Remdesivir injections for use on COVID-19 patients at its five hospitals. The civic standing committee has given an approval for the purchase of Remedisivir at a cost of around Rs 3 crores.
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