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The theft of pharmaceuticals

Aug 06, 2013 Editorial

 
We hear of people stealing drugs from the hospitals; we hear of doctors providing people with prescriptions to purchase drugs from dispensaries not connected to the government; and we hear of nurses smuggling drugs out of the public hospitals. In the case of the stealing and the smuggling there have been some arrests, but these are not even the tip of the iceberg.
But we must first look at the large sums of money that the government spends on importing pharmaceuticals for the good of the sick people in the nation. In fact, the manner of the drug importation has been a source of public criticism for years. The government has been resorting to a case of selective tendering that smacked of favouritism and nepotism.
The root cause of the criticisms was the fact that there were others capable of effecting the imports, but the government persisted with the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation, which is headed by a close friend of the man who headed the country right up to the 2011 elections.
To fuel the criticisms were the almost incessant reports by the Auditor General. He found that there were many questions surrounding the level of the imports. In one case, the Auditor General found that the volume of drugs in the system did not match the allocations for the purchase. The suggestion was that the drugs purchased did not match the money spent. And this was repeated every year, with no change by the purchaser.
Then there were the doctors who worked at both the private and public institutions. These doctors were often spared the cost of importing drugs to maintain their private practice. The public institutions provided adequate supplies. Nurses played an integral part in getting these drugs to the doctors who wrote the prescriptions.
This past week we heard of people stealing insulin from the New Amsterdam Hospital. This matter is before the courts. But even more serious is the extent of drug addiction in the hospitals. This situation is not as secret as the nation would want to believe. It may not have been as publicized, but it is not uncommon. Last year there were no less than five nurses at the Georgetown Public Hospital who were addicted to the narcotic, Pethidine.
This is a pain killer in the same genre as morphine, but far more addictive. Doctors do not order more than three doses for patients. A senior public servant recently wrote about his addiction. Pethidine addiction is actually quite common, as millions of people suffer with painkiller addictions each year. There has been a rise in the number of people that have become addicted to Pethidine since 2000. The addiction has caused many people to resort to stealing the drug and physician’s pads in order to feed their habit. Pethidine addiction affects all segments of the population and can cause an individual to spiral out of control if it remains untreated.
In the United States, the drug is known as Demerol. In the UK, its use is restricted mainly to women in labour.
Michael Jackson received a daily injection of Demerol.  Long-term addicts develop tolerance to the drug and require higher and higher doses – this is dangerous, as the drug slows the breathing and can cause cardiac arrest. This is believed to have killed Michael Jackson.
Doctors in Guyana, some place the figure as high as 40 per cent in the public system, are addicts.
Because the drug is so restrictive, it is not unusual for doctors to recommend the drug, even for themselves. This is where they need the help of nurses who in turn help themselves. The theft of the drug could be spotted if there are regular checks on the use, but in Guyana no one checks. Even the authorities do nothing more than import pharmaceuticals, even when there are adequate supplies in the system.
As long as the loophole continues, until there is strict computerization of the movement of drugs within the system, until there is cross-checking, there will continue to be the theft of drugs and their misuse.

 

 

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