What seemed to be just an arrest for possession of psychotropic drugs in a pharmacy has turned out to be a bigger criminal case. During a search in Doorgesh Jaulimsing’s pharmacy, the police and officials of the ministry of Health found not only psychotropic drugs but also medicine coming from hospital pharmacies. Others were found in a pharmacy in Mahebourg.

The ministry has opened an enquiry, which has concluded there was internal complicity in hospitals. Some hospital dispensers have been transferred so as not to tamper with evidence. This could be the beginning of a great scandal in our already troubled health sector.

The ministry is said to have a list of pharmacies where medicines with “GM and Ministry of Health” labels on them. The search in the Mahebourg pharmacy, where inhalers and cough syrups with such labels were found, seems to confirm it. Health minister Satish Faugoo does not seem prepared to spare the “criminals”. “This proves that there is medicine traffic. We will not twiddle our thumbs but we will take sanctions. This is a case of theft.”

For the minister, the first step is the transfer of a certain section of the staff: dispensers. Although he insists it is not a “punitive transfer” – but a way of avoiding tampering – unions have started protesting against this measure, considered as a “wrong signal”.

<B>Unfair transfer</B>

Radakrishna Sadien, the leader of the Government Servants Association (GSA), finds it unfair that all dispensers should be transferred while just a small number is responsible for the crime. He asked for a suspension of the minister’s decision until the end of the enquiry led by an independent body.

Likewise Ravin Gaya, president of the Association of Pharmacists of Mauritius, doesn’t understand why dispensers are the only ones to be pointed at. Many other people from the hospital staff can have access to these medicines. However, he agrees with the ministry that such abuse can’t be tolerated and that sanctions should be taken against the guilty.

The pharmacy of Doorgesh Jaulimsing in Bambous had been closed until yesterday. When the police carried out their search, they also realised that there was no professional pharmacist working there as required by law. The “cleaning operation” has started in the health sector… and this can only be positive!