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Kayode Fayemi Governor of Ekiti State has supervised the destruction of expired drugs worth about N15 million withdrawn from all public health facilities across the state.
Fayemi said the destruction became necessary to rid the state of toxic and dangerous substances and to enable his administration commence the transformation of the health sector on a desired, guaranteed quality health care services and delivery.
“Getting rid of expired drugs could be achieved by simply discarding the drugs at any dump site and burning them became necessary to ensure that people of doubtful characters do not lay their hands on them to inject them back to the society,” the governor said.
Fayemi identified the effects of expired drugs to include decrease in effectiveness over time, discolouration or loss of aesthetic value due to reaction on long time storage and conversion to poisonous substances as a result of chain breakage and cleavage.
Ayotunde Omole, permanent secretary, Ministry of Health and Human Services, who represented Governor Fayemi at the exercise noted that taking expired drugs could cause organ damage, restlessness, and other emergencies.
Omole who is also a medical doctor added that the inherent dangers in taking expired drugs informed the decision of Ekiti state government to mandate all government primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities to be combed for such products for prompt destruction.
In her welcome address, Olabisi Arogundade, general manager, central medical stores, revealed that destruction of expired drugs was last carried out in the state in 2008 and since then, expired drugs generated in all public health facilities were withdrawn and stock-piled at the Central Medical Store which is the government’s agency for drug procurement, storage, management for onward distribution to government health institutions.
“The stockpile of expired drugs have become so huge over the years that it called for prompt attention of disposal due to its negative effect on humans and the entire environment “, Arogundade noted.
While emphasising on efforts to avoid future wastages, the General Manager promised that the state Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) would more than ever before monitor drug inventory to reduce wastage and equally liaise with donors to ensure that only drugs with desirable remaining shelf-life ( RSL) were taken to the state and in quantities that could be consumed within RSL.
“Better collaboration and coordination of sources of drugs and utilization amongst all stakeholders will also be ensured as we move forward in the delivery of our services “, Arogundade further added.
AKINREMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan
