KOLKATA: Following the death of a lady during childbirth at a government hospital in Bengal’s West Midnapore district, allegedly after administration of intravenous fluid Ringer’s lactate, Calcutta high court on Thursday questioned the Bengal health department, asking it why it had not taken any step to withdraw existing stocks of Ringer’s lactate made by Paschim Banga Pharmaceutical as soon as the Directorate of Drugs Control ordered the pharma company to stop manufacturing it on Dec 10 last year.
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It was “disturbing” that the health department had failed to act immediately, the division bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya said.
The bench directed the state to “adequately compensate” the family of Mamoni Ruidas, who died after childbirth at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital after this intravenous saline solution was administered. Ruidas, a resident of Garbeta in West Midnapore, had breathed her last on Jan 10 – a month since the stop-manufacture order had been issued.
The bench was hearing two PILs that sought court intervention on the issue, claiming that the death was directly due to the use of the suspect saline solution. The lawyer for one of the petitioners, Phiroze Edulji, told the court that the company was banned for three years by another state govt last March, and that Bengal govt had been informed about this. The Siliguri regional office of Directorate of Drugs Control, a govt arm, had sent out the stop-manufacture order to the pharma company on Dec 10.
Advocate general Kishore Datta informed the bench that the remaining stock had been withdrawn. The company’s lawyer also said that they had stopped manufacturing the particular solution after the suspension notice was issued.
The CJ said the health department should have frozen all stocks of the medicine the moment the order had been issued. The AG replied that the difficulty was over how to replace 30,000 units, which were already sent to state facilities, overnight.
The court noted that action was taken by the Directorate of Health Service, Central Medical Store, on Jan 14, 2025 – by which a direction, banning all drugs manufactured by the company, had been issued to all medical colleges and hospitals. The CJ said both PILs had flagged the important issue of safety and health of Bengal’s citizens, particularly those who use govt-run medical hospitals.
The bench directed the chief secretary to file a report on the incident. Central authorities were also directed to file a report on the action taken against the pharma company.
