HARIPUR: An internal probe committee comprising senior doctors of the District Headquarter Hospital, Haripur, has recommended disciplinary action against the in-charge of the medicines store for misconduct and misappropriation, official sources said.

They said the hospital administration had also served a show-cause notice to the official, who had already been suspended, and was asked to submit a reply within 10 days.

The sources said the in-charge pharmacist of the DHQ Hospital had detected an entry of supply of 1,500 vials of insulin in a single day to the OPD pharmacy in October last year. But the medicine was not delivered to the pharmacy from the main store. The matter was initially probed by the pharmacist and medical superintendent Dr Mohsin Raza in February 2023. They had also found that the record of indent register had been tampered with.

Afterwards, the MS had constituted an inquiry committee, which confiscated the medicines store’s record and recorded statements of store in-charge Mohammad Saeed and a couple of other staff members. It also conducted an internal audit of the medicines store that led to unearthing of alleged misappropriation.

The probe committee also heard the store in-charge and his fellow employees in person and obtained their written statements. However, the storekeeper failed to justify the record tampering and issuance of 1,500 vials of insulin in a single day. The probe body, according to official sources, in its finding found Mr Saeed guilty of tampering record and misappropriating insulin vials, costing over Rs600,000 loss, and recommended disciplinary action against him besides recovery of the embezzled cost of medicine.

When contacted, the MS confirmed that the storekeeper had been found guilty of misconduct and embezzlement and was also served with show-cause notice.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2023