BRS exposes expired medicines at Basti Dawakhanas in Hyderabad

BRS delegations inspecting Hyderabad Basti Dawakhanas found expired medicines, rusting surgical tools, and unpaid staff, raising serious public health concerns. Leaders accused the Congress government of neglecting urban healthcare infrastructure and failing to maintain essential supplies established under the previous BRS administration

Hyderabad: Visits by BRS delegations to Basti Dawakhanas in the capital on Tuesday revealed gross negligence on the part of the State government, with inspections showing that patients were being given expired medicines and that the medicines in some of these urban health centres were not replaced despite expiring way back in November 2023. This was the case in at least two of the Dawakhanas, with caregivers there telling the BRS leaders that they were unaware that the medicines had expired.

In the first instance, a delegation led by BRS official spokesperson Manne Krishank visited the Rasoolpura Basti Dawakhana in Secunderabad Cantonment following a call by BRS working president KT Rama Rao to check the facilities at Basti Dawakhanas.

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“While I was entering the facility, I spotted a woman patient coming out holding a prescription and medicines. She had visited the facility for viral fever. On checking the medicines, I was shocked because they had expired three months ago. I immediately took the old woman to the hospital authorities and confronted them. They were apologetic and said they had no clue how this mistake happened,” he said.

Krishank said the incident highlighted serious lapses in public health safety and failure of the State Health Department to ensure quality control and monitoring of medicines supplied to urban health centres.

“The caregivers at the Basthi Dawakhana told me they were unaware that the medicines had expired. They also informed us that the staff had not received their salaries for the past five months,” he said.

Krishank stressed the need for the State government to immediately inspect all the Basti Dawakhanas in Hyderabad and ensure timely medicines are available for the poor. “Such negligence can endanger the lives of citizens who keep their trust on Basti Dawakhanas,” he said, adding that the BRS would continue inspections across all Basti Dawakhanas to bring out the truth about the deteriorating health infrastructure under Congress regime.

Meanwhile, BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy too expressed outrage after discovering expired medicines being supplied to patients at the Yousufguda Basti Dawakhana. Kaushik Reddy, who visited the healthcare centre along with Rajya Sabha MP Vaddiraju Ravichandra, and Jubilee Hills BRS candidate Maganti Sunitha Gopinath, said the Congress government was unable to provide basic healthcare to the poor.

“Medicines supplied by the then BRS government in January and November 2023 are being given at this clinic. While some were found expired, others are nearing expiry, which means that the Congress government did not even bother to replace them. This is a serious threat to public health,” he said, displaying evidence before the media.

They also found the medical staff washing hands using water from buckets due to lack of sanitisers. Surgical tools like scissors and other equipment used for first aid were found rusting, and even health report envelopes and patient record books supplied by the previous BRS government were still being used as the Congress administration failed to replenish stock.

Kaushik Reddy said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had failed to maintain the Basti Dawakhana network established by former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to serve the urban poor.

“The Congress government has turned these life-saving hospitals into death traps,” he said.