New Delhi, With a CBI inquiry being ordered into the availability of substandard medicines in Delhi authorities hospitals, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday stated of the “43 samples” collected from three hospitals, solely 5 had been declared “not of standard quality”. At a press convention within the nationwide capital, he stated the official report used many occasions the phrases “NSQ” or “not of standard quality”. It is “nowhere mentioned (in the report) that the drugs are fake, counterfeit, poison, spurious”. “You cannot write it officially like that as it wasn’t so,” he stated.

The Union Home Ministry has ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the alleged provide of substandard medicines in Delhi authorities hospitals and if the medicine had been additionally distributed by mohalla clinics, sources stated on Friday.

The CBI probe was ordered following a advice by Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena in December.

Bharadwaj additionally sought accountable the BJP on the problem and alleged that the saffron celebration is “spreading rumours” about these medicine being “fake and spurious” although the medicines had been “neither spurious nor fake, they just did not meet some of the standards (of testing)”.

The well being minister’s workplace later issued a press release during which it alleged that “the BJP is spreading lies about fake medicines in Delhi to influence the upcoming elections”.

Responding to the allegations, the BJP’s Delhi unit chief Virendra Sachdeva questioned why Bhardwaj “remained silent” though he had claimed to have been conscious of the problems associated to medicines and pathological exams in March 2023 itself.

Earlier within the day, Bharadwaj welcomed the CBI inquiry into the alleged provide of substandard medicines in Delhi government-run hospitals and demanded the fast suspension of the well being division’s secretary.

At his press convention, he sought to allay the “fear” within the minds of crores of residents of Delhi in regards to the high quality of medicines provided in metropolis government-run hospitals and guaranteed them that the medicine are neither spurious nor counterfeit, as claimed by the BJP.

All medicines had been “found to contain genuine salt”, there was no different salt or any pretend salt, the minister stated citing the report.

The take a look at report of medication samples says it was not of normal high quality and the explanation for that was cited as dissolution, ie, the time a medication takes to dissolve within the abdomen, the minister instructed reporters.

“The companies which supply drugs to Delhi government hospitals also supply medicines to hospitals of the central government and other states,” Bharadwaj stated.

Testing drug samples sometimes is “normal protocol” which is a steady course of and, if a medication pattern does not meet requirements, the entire “batch of drugs is returned” and cost of the agency is “withheld”, the minister stated.

Even as per CPA (Central Procurement Agency) knowledge, 12 of 281 samples in 2022-23 and 20 of 651 in 2023-24 had been “found to be ‘not of standard’, and this is a normal practice”, Bharadwaj stated.

During the press convention on the Delhi Secretariat, he additionally alleged that the BJP and a “constitutional office” aided in “planting news that these medicines are fake”.

“I am not a pharmacist, I am not a doctor. However, when I looked carefully at the test reports of the samples mentioned in the Vigilance department report, which was sent to the CBI, I spoke to many pharmacists, and some private pharmacists, private doctors, and came to know some very surprising things,” he stated.

The Delhi well being minister additionally talked about the names of the medicine talked about within the report — “pantoprazole gastro-resistant tablets IP 40 mg, amlodipine tablets IP 5 mg, levetiracetam tablets IP 500 mg, cephalexin capsules IP 500 mg, and dexamethasone tablets IP 4 mg”.

“It is just like the vicious campaign that was run by some BJP leaders in 2019 that the water of Delhi was ‘poisonous’ but no BJP leader left Delhi in 2019. Though their relatives and friends seek treatment in these Delhi government hospitals, they are still lying about the medicines supplied there,” he stated.