Private hospital pharmacies stocking expired drugs

Worried about your medication? You should be after a government watchdog, acting to protect consumers reported multiple cases of expired drugs on the shelves of private hospital pharmacies.

If you are buying a large box of prescribed tablets, maybe you look at the expiry date as many citizens do when shopping in supermarkets and discover a sudden low price offer.
But in pharmacies, particularly when they are in a hospital, your concerns more likely to be   whether or not they have the drug which your doctor has recommended. Those on the blood thinner Coumadin, or its alternative Warfarin often have to scour the city  to gind their recommended life saver. Prices rise, but supplies disappear
A recent report by a government agency, acting on behalf of consumers said that they had discovered hundreds of packets of drugs that has passed their expiry date. So when you picked up your last medication, did you check the date? (I don’t think it says “best before”). If you got it from any one of a group of private hospitals, you might have been out of luck.
If you are one who checks expiry dates, even in trusted pharmacies, you are one of the lucky few. But for the average Panamanian who tends to buy extortionately high priced drugs in ones and twos, and receives them in a small paper bag, there is no way of knowing if they are getting this year’s model.
In reaction to the breaking news Orlando Pérez, president of the National Union of Pharmacy Owners, yesterday called upon medical center managers to be careful in handling drugs that have expired

He said that pharmacies must have a properly identified area in which to place the expired medicines for return, as required by the National Directorate of Pharmacy and Drugs.
The recent investigation by health authorities and consumer protection agencies detected more than 700 expired products in five private hospitals in the capital Sanctions could include fines up to $50 000.

 The hospitals named were Paitilla, San Fernando, Rio Abajo, Santa Fé and the National.
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