––– three arrested, prime suspect at large

THREE persons were arrested on Tuesday after a large quantity of drugs and medical supplies vanished from the Suddie Public Hospital, Essequibo Coast, but the prime suspect is still at large.

The Guyana Police Force was called in to investigate a case of fraud at the Suddie Public Hospital after drugs and medical supplies went missing one week after arriving. After conducting their initial investigation, the police released the trio on $20, 000 bail each.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Public Health Ministry explained that when a Ministerial Task Force visited the Suddie Public Hospital on Monday, authorities there could not account for several items sent just last week Tuesday by the Materials Management Unit (MMU).
But this was just the tip of the iceberg, as the Task Force also unearthed several other irregularities at the district hospital in the Pomeroon/Supenaam region.

“In one instance, the pharmacist at the hospital could not have given account for several ampules of pethidine, codine and morphine,” the Health Ministry pointed out.
Additionally, the Register for Dangerous Drugs had not been updated since 2015.
“The team also found instances where the stock of narcotic drugs either could not be accounted for and the pharmacist had extra drugs that were still not recorded as prescribed under the law,” the ministry further disclosed.

A MMU staffer confirmed Tuesday that 10 items on the list of drugs destined for the Suddie Hospital “either never arrived,” or significantly fewer were received than was sent.
“For example, all 100 boxes of the drugs Simvastatin disappeared before arriving at the hospital. Each box contained 100 of the drugs,” the Public Health Ministry explained.
Additionally, all of the 108 bottles of the Paracetamol suspension have reportedly vanished, in addition to 20 of the 1,000 Ampicillin 500Mg. Twenty thousand disposable gloves sent for the hospital were also stolen. A police investigation into this fraud case is still ongoing.