PK Das (left) looks at the saline bottles at SCB Medical College and Hospital. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Aug. 17: Director of the medical education and training Prasana Kumar Das today began a probe into the death of a patient from Ganjam because of alleged negligence on part of the staff at S.C.B. Medical College and Hospital.

The patient, Purna Naik, 60, died hours after she had been administered allegedly an expired saline bottle on Tuesday evening. Purna’s family members alleged that she had been administered the expired saline.

Purna, a malaria patient, had been undergoing treatment at the medicine ward since August 3. “We are inquiring into the incident and appropriate action will be taken against the guilty,” said Das.

Today, the hospital’s saline stocks were verified and it was suspected that the expired saline bottle might have been issued from the store along with the batch of fresh saline bottles to various wards.

The S.C.B. authorities admitted that negligence was caused by the pharmacist concerned and the staff nurse on duty should have checked the validity of the saline before administering it to the patient.

“There is no chance that administration of expired saline would result in death of a patient,” said S.C.B. superintendent D.N. Moharana.

The Medical Banchao Committee today also submitted a memorandum to the revenue divisional commissioner through the administrative officer seeking a detailed probe into the saline controversy at the hospital.

“We want a through probe into the incident. It is a serious issue as people from the state as well as outside come to the hospital for treatment,” said Medical Banchao Committee president Suresh Mohapatra.

He also demanded that the family members of the deceased should be given a compensation of Rs 5 lakh immediately.