Government hospital suspended two staff after expired medicines given to official's daughter in UP

A serious lapse in medical protocol has triggered an investigation at a government healthcare facility in Uttar Pradesh after expired medicines were administered to the daughter of a senior district official. The incident came to light at Lalganj Community Health Centre and Trauma Center in Pratapgarh when the daughter of Sub-Divisional Magistrate Vachaspati Singh was brought in for fever treatment and allegedly given expired paracetamol injections and glucose. Once the expiry dates of the medicines came to notice, the matter was immediately escalated to senior health department officials.

Chief Medical Officer conducted a surprise inspection of the facility on Friday, scrutinizing the drug storage system, stock inventory, and expiry date monitoring mechanisms at the hospital. The inspection revealed a large number of expired medicines and glucose bottles stored in the facility. Following the discovery, a drive was launched on Saturday morning to remove all expired medications from the hospital stores. The incident has exposed serious gaps in the pharmaceutical inventory management system at the public healthcare center.

Swift disciplinary action followed the incident. Store in-charge Arvind Kumar Shukla has been suspended for issuing expired injections, while pharmacist Dev Kumar Dubey was suspended for failing to verify the expiry date before administering the injection to the patient. Both officials are accused of gross negligence in their respective duties, which directly endangered patient safety.

The case has raised critical questions about the oversight and monitoring protocols at government health facilities. Investigators are now examining how such large quantities of expired medicines remained in storage for extended periods without detection, why regular stock audits failed to identify them, and at what administrative level responsibility for monitoring drug expiry dates was assigned. The incident underscores urgent concerns about quality control and patient safety standards in public healthcare institutions across the state.