Maharashtra has ordered immediate machine-based checks of medicine stocks at all government hospitals after raids in Thane and Pune raised concerns about spurious and substandard drugs entering the public healthcare supply chain.
Health minister Prakash Abitkar directed health authorities on Wednesday to deploy portable counterfeit drug-detection devices and create dedicated inspection teams for government health facilities. The exercise will cover primary health centres, district hospitals and other government-run facilities across the state.
The first phase of inspections is scheduled to be completed within three months. According to the report, trained pharmacist teams will conduct preliminary screening of medicine inventories using portable detection machines. The checks are intended to identify suspect batches between procurement and their use for patients.
The directive followed the seizure of fake medicines worth Rs 2.8 lakh by Thane police. Two people were arrested in that case. Earlier, the state Food and Drug Administration raided a wholesaler in Pune and recovered spurious medicines valued at Rs 2.7 lakh.
The state has also cancelled the licences of 176 retailers and 39 wholesalers over the past year for stocking substandard medicines, the report said. Hundreds of medicine samples were flagged as “not of standard quality” during routine testing.
Abitkar said systems were being strengthened to ensure that medicines supplied to citizens met quality requirements. “Trained pharmacist teams will carry out preliminary screening of medicine inventories using portable detection machines. The first phase of inspections will be completed within three months. The move is designed to plug gaps between procurement and patient use, catching bad batches before they reach bedsides,” he said at a meeting at the Directorate of Health Services in Mumbai.
The state has ordered a second layer of scrutiny through an independent laboratory system to verify the quality of medicines supplied by vendors. The laboratory process is intended to operate alongside on-site screening, creating what the minister described as a two-tier safety system for medicines in public hospitals.
The action places government hospitals at the centre of the state’s response because these facilities depend on institutional procurement and distribute medicines directly to patients. The inspections will therefore involve not only drug regulators but also health-service administrators, pharmacists, procurement officials and hospital teams responsible for receiving and storing supplies.
Officials present at the meeting included Dr Bapu Pawar, chief executive officer of the State Goods Procurement Authority; Dr Nitin Ambadekar, director of health services in Mumbai; Dr Vijay Kandewad, director of Health Services in Pune; and joint director Sunita Golhait. The next stated milestone is completion of the first inspection phase within three months.