BHOPAL: A total of 863 life-saving Remdesivir injections were stolen from the state-run Hamidia Hospital on Saturday. The 18 boxes containing these injections went missing from the store-room on Saturday when a team of employees of the hospital went to issue the drug for the patients. The thieves did not steal any other drug or medical item from the store-room and the police concluded that they had only one target—Remdesivir.
The stock of 1,500 Remdesivir injections was supplied to Hamidia Hospital on Thursday by the district administration. The remaining injections were used and 863 injections were stored in the Central Medical Store (Kendriya Aushadhi Bhandar) from where the thieves made off with the boxes. The grill of the store was damaged and the police suspect the thieves made their way through it into the room.
At a time when deaths are occurring due to a shortage of Remdesivir injections, the huge stock of injections went missing from the store-room of the hospital. The store-room was closed around 7 in the evening. On Saturday, the incident came to light. The grill of store room was broken by the thieves. However, the police were clueless as they could not find any CCTV footage from the spot. The police also suspect someone from the staff was involved in the crime.
These injections were supplied to the hospital by the administration on Friday. The hospital administration had stored the cache for use. However, on Saturday morning, when a team of doctors sought the injections for administering to patients, the box was missing.
Later, the Hamidia administration carried out searches inside the compound, but to no avail. The shortage of Remdesivir had made headlines and, recently, these injections were sent to Bhopal and other districts.
As the accused made off with only Remdesivir and did not steal any other object, it was clear that their target was Remdesivir injections. The government has fallen short of Remdesivir and several patients have died in the past for lack of it. The injections are being sold at 10 times higher rates in the market due to the shortage.
Minister for medical education Vishwas Sarang, divisional commissioner Kavindra Kiyawat, deputy inspector general (DIG) Irshad Wali and other senior officials reached the spot after the news broke. Vishwas Sarang said that an inquiry into the incident was underway. He said they would ensure such incidents were not repeated
