Unicaus NEWS
The Commission, in its order dated July 4, additionally known as for strict motion towards hospital authorities and an entire overhaul of medication procurement and verification protocols in authorities hospitals.
The incident, which got here to gentle via complaints filed in 2014 and 2015, concerned 16 people who suffered adversarial results after being given expired vaccines on the hospital’s Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Centre of Excellence.
The complainants alleged that Dr. V. Tara Devi, a Research Fellow on the centre, administered the vaccines regardless of their expiry, resulting in dizziness, abdomen ache, drowsiness, and vital psychological misery.
The THRC additionally took suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report printed in 2015, which revealed irregularities within the hospital’s medication provide system. Its investigation discovered that the vaccines have been certainly expired, and that the packaging displayed two conflicting expiry dates, one for the vaccine and one other for the syringe. While hospital authorities claimed the administration was unintentional and blamed the producer for the unclear labelling, the Commission rejected the reason, holding the hospital accountable for failing in its primary and non-negotiable responsibility to confirm expiry dates earlier than drug administration.
The Commission discovered the hospital superintendent’s report defending the act to be motivated by a need to protect the hospital workers. It additionally dismissed the declare that the expired vaccines had low efficiency and have been due to this fact innocent, calling it medically unfounded.
Justice Shameem Akther, Chairperson of the THRC, held that the victims’ elementary rights to well being, dignity, and bodily integrity have been violated. He famous that though Dr. Tara Devi had been suspended, disciplinary motion alone was not ample to deal with the seriousness of the breach.
The Commission directed the Chief Secretary of Telangana to provoke proceedings towards all accountable officers, together with the hospital’s Superintendent and supervising workers. It additional requested the federal government to make sure that expired or almost expired medicine usually are not accepted at any government-run healthcare facility. Suppliers should be made to print clear and distinguished expiry dates on each the outer wrapper and inside containers of all medical provides. The State authorities has been given two months from the date of the order to implement the suggestions in full.
Published – July 17, 2025 08:40 pm IST
