United Hospital fined Tk 20 lakh for anomalies

A mobile court today fined United Hospital, a private hospital in Dhaka’s Gulshan, Tk 20 lakh for using expired reagents in medical tests and surgical items without any expiry date.

The hospital authorities were given a 15-day timeframe to take measures to rectify the anomalies.

This photo taken on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 shows that one of their reagents which was preserved in a domestic freezer expired 2 years ago in 2015. Photo: Bishakha Devnath

The mobile court run by Rapid Action Battalion-1 (Rab-1) while conducting a raid at the hospital found the reagents were preserved in domestic freezers instead of pharmaceutical freezers, said Sarwoer Alam, executive magistrate of the Rab-2 who led the inspection.

The reagents were supposed to be kept in pharmaceutical freezers under 2 to 8 degree Celsius but those were kept in domestic freezers violating medical norms, he said.

In this case, the reagents were kept below 0 degree Celsius.

The court also found surgical items without any expiry date mentioned and there were imported medicines without any country of origin mentioned.

Meanwhile, Shagufa Anwar, chief of communication and business development of the hospital, told The Daily Star that it was a regular inspection by Rab members.

“We will follow the directives given by the Rab,” she said.