The Island
The Medical Officers of the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital are up in arms against a move by the trade union of Government Services to hush up an investigation into an incident where some hospital employees are alleged to have sold medical equipment with the State emblem belonging to the hospital to a private pharmacy in town.
The doctors said this arose when the guardian of a patient admitted to the Dialysis Unit had been asked to bring a part of the medical equipment needed for a machine in the unit which the hospital didn’t have.
When the patient’s guardian purchased the part from a private pharmacy for Rs 15,000 and brought it to the hospital, the medical officers discovered the particular equipment had the Government emblem printed on it, the Medical Officers said.
The doctors said that the Head matron of the Unit, informed that there were no stocks of this particular part of the machine available in the hospital stores for the last two weeks and they were at a loss to understand how the patient was able to purchase it from a private pharmacy with the Government emblem.
Dr. Chamara Illangasinghe, Secretary, GMOA, Anuradhapura branch told The Island that a request was made to the top administration to launch an inquiry to investigate how the particular object with the Government emblem found its way to a private pharmacy.
However when the inquiry got underway, the hospital authorities had not called the Head Nurse of the Unit for the inquiry and the Medical officers of the hospital demand that the inquiry shouldn’t be held sans the Head Nurse of the Unit as he is responsible for this lapse.