The entrance to Siliguri District Hospital

Siliguri, Sept. 2: A patient in the Siliguri District Hospital was today administered saline that had crossed its expiry date, exposing the laid-back attitude of keepers of a system that is supposed to check regularly the medicines in the hospital store.

The hospital has showcaused the nurse in-charge of the male surgical ward, asking her to explain why the IV fluid that had crossed its expiry date in February was administered by a nurse under her.

At the same time, the hospital authorities also said an IV like saline if administered after its expiry date did not cause any harm, a claim that has been rejected by doctors in town.

“Side-effects like skin allergies or infection of blood could arise if the fluid that has crossed its expiry date has got contaminated or infected by fungus,” said a doctor, who refused to be named.

Rajiv Bhowmik, who was admitted to the hospital with a head injury last night raised the alarm when he noticed that the drip that started this morning had crossed its expiry date in February.

Bhowmik was admitted to the hospital last night after an iron rod fell on him at his home in Uttar Bharatnagar here.

“Around 8am today, a new packet packed of IV fluid was administered on me. While lying on my bed I could see that the packet was old and dusty so I checked it and realised that the expiry date on the packet was February 2011. I asked the relative of a patient on the bed beside me to check the date in case I was wrong. But he too confirmed that its expired date had crossed,” Bhowmik, a resident of Uttar Bharatnagar here, said.

By the time Bhowmik had raised a hue and cry, half of the fluid in the packet had already been administered. “When the nurse who had fixed up the saline refused to remove it, all of us in the room protested. Realising that the matter has turned into a major issue, she tried to take away the packet. We stopped her,” he added.

Bhowmik’s relatives and some Trinamul Congress leaders then forced hospital superintendent S.K. Sarkar to visit the ward and check the packet himself.

Later, in the afternoon the superintendent issued a show cause notice to Gita Devi Pradhan, the nursing in-charge of the ward, asking her to furnish him with details of the nurse who had given the fluid and the whole incident.

“The report will be forwarded to the district chief medical officer of health who will decide on the steps to be taken against the nurse. But a saline which has crossed its expiry date does not cause any harm,” Sarkar said.

Bhowmik was discharged around 11am since he was considered fit. “We kept him under observation for two hours after the fluid was administered. Since he was ok, he was released,” a doctor at the hospital.

Sarkar denied the charge that stock in the storeroom was not checked. “Today’s incident is a rare case. It happened because of a mistake by the staff. But it’s not true that we do not check the stock in the storeroom at regular intervals. We check the stock every three month and all drugs and medicines that have crossed their expiry dates are disposed of. Apart from that, the store keeper checks all the medicines and drugs before they are supplied to the different wards,” the superintendent said.