It’s a cakewalk for thieves to steal opioid drugs from city hospitals

With barely any security checks in place in most of the smaller hospitals and even some big ones, the theft of opioid drugs was waiting to happen. A random visit to a few hospitals in the city showed that anyone can go into the post-operative wards and lay their hands on the opioid drugs kept there within a matter of few minutes.
Most of the hospitals do not question strangers assuming them to be relatives of patients.Hospital staff also wake up to the reality that drugs could also become a target for thieves only after such incidents happen. Though all hospitals have CCTV cameras, police have found the accused were aware of the locations of the cameras and walked free without revealing their faces in several occasions.
“In the past two years almost every private hospital in the city has raised oral complaints regarding theft attempts from their post-operative wards,” said the president of the Indian Medical Association, Dr Vinod Rajkumar. He added that a written complaint was also given to the Puliyakulam police on August 22, 2017 when similar attempts were made at three private hospitals in that area, including Krishna Hospital and Aadhi Hospital. It was Pentozocine also known as Fortwin a painkiller that was the target often.
The hospitals are an easy target after midnight and during the early hours of the day as not many people are there to monitor the wards, police say. Dr Asha Rao of Rao Hospital said that a year ago, a nurse had found two boys lurking near the post-operative ward. And they seemed to be looking for something when she raised an alarm and the security chased them away. “But immediately half hour later, the duo was found in the nearby hospital. We had called up the police to inform about it,” she said.
When TOI visited various city hospitals, it was found that the pharmacies maintained registers for all the drugs that were sent to the surgery wards and to public on prescription. A similar register was also maintained in the surgery ward by the nurses. But whenever late night surgeries take place, the drugs are often left in the post-operative wards. “A few ampules are always there for emergency purposes. It is these ampules that these youngsters target,” said a doctor.
Everyone has a different modus operandi. In this case, the accused arrested at Global Ortho Hospital had been admitted there a few months ago. Some doctors also pointed out that some hospital staff could also be involved in these cases. These youngsters even know the timings when the wards are opened for cleaning and that is exactly when they strike.
Last year, several cases were reported at Mettupalayam and Annur government hospitals and a few youngsters were also arrested. But since this drug is not covered under the Narcotics Act, it is difficult to take any stringent action as they escape with a fine.
Vinod Rajkumar said that was one of the primary reasons why these youngsters have been repeating such offences. “We have convened a meeting on Wednesday with all hospitals to find out about the various incidents. We will meet the police commissioner as well and give him a written complaint about this,” he said.