Benue hospital set fire to N200m expired drugs, to dispose 100 corpses

The Benue State Government on Friday destroyed expired drugs worth over N200m.

The expired drugs were set ablaze within the premises of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, located along Gboko road, Makurdi.

The Chief Medical Director of BSUTH, Stephen Hwande, had on Wednesday disclosed his intention to destroy the expired drugs kept at Muhammad Buhari Mother and Child Hospital stores in the capital city.

Speaking with journalists at the spot of destroying the expired drugs, Hwande said that the expired drugs belong to the Teaching Hospital.

He said, “These are drugs acquired by the hospital to be used by the hospital for the patients. So why did they abandon the drugs to the point of expiration, no one can say.

“When you get drugs with short dates, you can convey some of these drugs to other hospitals for instance, we have Internally Displaced Persons camps you can give them, hospitals and you can even do medical outreach with the drugs before they expire.

“There is no reason you should have drugs worth this amount of money expiring in this hospital when the whole state needs drugs. To keep our record straight because sometimes people may even go to the store and still use them so we decided to destroy the drugs.”

Asked what types of drugs were destroyed, the CMD said, “Every kind of drugs, antibiotics, anti-hypertensive, anti-malaria including consumables like iodine, bandages, urine bags, everything! This can form a big pharmacy in Makurdi.”

The CMD further said 100 unclaimed corpses were in the hospital’ morgue, adding that the hospital had written to the State Commissioner of Police to grant permission to dispose of the corpses.

He said, “On assumption of office, I went round the stores and I discovered drugs worth over N200 million and consumables in the stores. I also discovered over 100 unclaimed corpses in the morgue.”