Rejoinder, our reply
The burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) has protested at a news report headlined “Expired drugs on auction” published in The Daily Star on May 20, saying that some facts in the story and the associated photo caption were wrong.
In a rejoinder, the unit's Assistant Director Dr Md Feroz Ahmed Khan claimed that in the 92 items selected for auction through tender was no name of any expired medicine.
He added some expired medicines were kept by the side of the to-be-auctioned goods. A separate list of these expired medicines was prepared, and later they were kept at a ground floor room. These expired drugs are now being destroyed as per government directives. But The Daily Star reported that these expired drugs were being sold through the auction.
There is no rule for selling expired medicine through auction, he said. The tender schedule for the auction also did not name any of the expired drugs.
The rejoinder also said the correspondent did not contact with the hospital authorities, leading to erroneous reporting.
Our reply
The report quoted the burn unit's Chief Coordinator Dr Samanta Lal Sen as saying they have auctioned expired drugs, empty bottles, and packets as scrap. The report also quoted the director of DMCH. Despite the claims of the rejoinder, the bid winner in the auction swept clean all the expired drugs mentioned in the news story. We stand by our report.
The report quoted the burn unit's Chief Coordinator Dr Samanta Lal Sen as saying they have auctioned expired drugs, empty bottles, and packets as scrap. The report also quoted the director of DMCH. Despite the claims of the rejoinder, the bid winner in the auction swept clean all the expired drugs mentioned in the news story. We stand by our report.
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