The West Bengal Health Department is set to roll out a new standard operating procedure (SOP) requiring weekly audits of medicine inventories across all state-run hospitals and medical college hospitals, in a bid to eliminate the administration of expired drugs to patients. State Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay has formally approved the SOP, according to a senior official within the department.

What the New SOP Mandates

Under the proposed framework, every state-run medical facility in West Bengal will be required to conduct a thorough weekly review of its medicine stocks. The audit will specifically scrutinise manufacturing and expiry dates. Medicines found to have lapsed even 24 hours past their expiry will be immediately rejected and destroyed on-site, according to the official, to foreclose any possibility of their being recycled or diverted outside hospital premises.

Hospitals or officials found to be repeat offenders — detected across multiple weekly reviews for retaining expired stocks — will face show-cause notices issued directly by the state health department. The accountability mechanism is intended to move beyond one-off corrective action and establish a pattern of consequence for persistent lapses.

What Triggered the Move

The decision follows a series of complaints received over the past several years alleging that patients in state-run facilities — including new mothers and newborns — were administered expired saline and expired Ringer's lactate, a commonly used intravenous fluid. These are among the most critical inputs in maternity and neonatal care, making the lapses particularly alarming, according to the official.

A second concern driving the SOP, as explained by the official, is the reported unauthorised circulation of expired medicines from government hospitals to voluntary health camps, where patients are treated with little regulatory oversight. This practice, if confirmed, would represent a systemic failure extending well beyond hospital walls.

Political Dimension: Sebaashray Camps Under Scrutiny

The issue has acquired a sharp political dimension. Complaints of expired medicine recovery were also linked to Sebaashray health camps — formerly organised by All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee. Reports of expired drugs being found at these camps have added pressure on the state administration to act.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has ordered parallel investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police and the state health department into the matter. The twin-probe approach signals the seriousness with which the administration is treating the allegations, though outcomes remain pending.

Scope of the SOP and Next Steps

Beyond weekly stock checks, the SOP is designed to ensure that expired medicines are not merely quarantined but destroyed immediately, removing any window for their diversion. The procedure will apply uniformly across district hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, and medical college hospitals in the state.

With both a regulatory mechanism and a parallel criminal inquiry now in motion, the coming weeks will test whether West Bengal's health infrastructure can translate policy intent into verifiable outcomes at the ward level.