Drug not sourced by PNG Health Department : Doctor

​A SENIOR pharmacist from the Area Medical Store (AMS) has testified that in his view, the batch of propofol (21007) which allegedly caused the post-op deaths of three patients at the Port Moresby General Hospital last year came in with the Coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines through the United Nations procurement process and not the Health Department.
Badili AMS manager Bibi Miere said there were no details or documentation on the particular batch of propofol and maintained that it did not come through the Health Department’s procurement process.

Former Chief Justice Sir Arnold Amet asked Miere if he could confirm his statement as a fact or a view to which Miere responded that the AMS had yet to receive the confirmation of the manufacturer of the batch of propofol and also establish which country it was supplied from.
“We requested for the list of all the drugs that came in with the Covid-19 vaccines but that has not been provided to us as yet,” he said.
He said the AMS was responsible for only storing drugs that were to be then distributed to the public hospitals.
Miere said it was on Aug 9, 2021, when Dr Sandy Ninijpa sent a request to the AMS that PMGH needed some anaesthesia drugs of propofol.
“Prior to that, PMGH was supplied with Covid-19 vaccines from the same donor so we released that batch of propofol as the stock from the Health Department was out,” he said.
Miere said when the AMS received the message about the suspicious deaths at the hospital on Aug 13, they decided to quarantine all the drugs that were imported including the propofol.
Sir Arnold asked Miere to explain the reason why they had to quarantine all the drugs. Were they all from the same source?
Miere said this question could be answered by the Covid-19 team as they brought in all the new stock.

The National / PNG Health Watch

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