This post was originally published on this site
An “extraordinary” amount of addictive narcotics has been stolen from two major public hospital in Perth in recent years, a Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) investigation has found.
The CCC report tabled in State Parliament on Tuesday highlighted systemic problems regarding the supply and management of Schedule 8 drugs at Fiona Stanley and Sir Charles Gairdner hospitals.
It follows last year’s conviction of a senior pharmacist from Fiona Stanley Hospital for stealing as a servant and possession of hydromorphone, which is similar to heroin.
The CCC investigation revealed the pharmacist became addicted to, and began stealing opioids, while employed at Sir Charles Gairdner.
It also found systems and controls in place to manage Schedule 8 drugs at the hospital were “inadequate and easy to circumvent”, and that Fiona Stanley Hospital failed to identify “obvious warning signs” meaning serious misconduct was only exposed when a colleague raised suspicions.
The report described the amount of drugs stolen from the hospitals as “extraordinary” and revealed “disturbing” gaps in the management and control of Schedule 8 drugs at public hospitals.
It highlighted a number of risk areas including afterhours access to the pharmacy safe and inadequate management of registers.
It acknowledged work was underway at both hospitals to prepare new polices and procedures.
The CCC said it believed that until this work was completed, a serious risk of corruption and misconduct remained.
It said a number of other inquiries and reports had made similar findings and recommendations in recent years, but these had not been implemented.