A fair-price medicine shop at Shantipur State General Hospital was closed on Saturday after patients’ relatives and local residents alleged that the outlet had supplied expired or damaged medicines. The hospital superintendent, Tarak Barman, said the matter would be examined.
The allegations surfaced after Chandana Saha visited the hospital with her child for treatment around two days earlier. According to the report, she purchased medicines from the hospital’s fair-price outlet on the doctor’s advice. The family later noticed what they described as irregularities after opening a strip of tablets.
The family alleged that some of the tablets were broken into pieces and that the medicine gave off an unpleasant smell. The report did not establish through laboratory testing or an official inspection whether the medicines had crossed their expiry dates. The allegation nevertheless led to a gathering of local residents and patients’ relatives at the hospital on Saturday.
The group subsequently closed the medicine shop. The action was taken amid the allegations and was not described as the result of a formal written order from the hospital administration. The incident has placed attention on the controls governing medicine storage and distribution at a public hospital outlet, where patients are expected to obtain medicines prescribed during treatment.
Employees at the shop said no written instruction to shut the outlet had been issued by the hospital superintendent or another competent authority. They said the shop was being kept closed temporarily on the basis of complaints raised by members of the public.
The hospital superintendent, Tarak Barman, said the matter would be investigated. No further details about an inspection, the medicine batch numbers, the supplier, or any action against the outlet were provided in the report.
The immediate issue for the hospital administration is to establish whether the medicines were expired, damaged, improperly stored or otherwise unsuitable for use, and to determine how they reached the fair-price outlet. The report also does not state whether any patient suffered a confirmed medical complication after taking the medicines. The shop’s status will depend on the findings of the hospital’s examination and any subsequent administrative action.
