LOCAL markets having been flooded with substandard medical supplies, including surgical gloves, is gravely concerning as it poses severe risks to patients and healthcare professionals. Some quarters are alleged to be manufacturing and importing substandard and spurious surgical gloves and supplying them to hospitals and healthcare facilities amid lack of monitoring. Surgical gloves are mainly used by healthcare professionals, including surgeons, and substandard surgical gloves can become a potential source of contamination and diseases. Physicians also allege that the local markets are awash with substandard gloves made of non-medical-grade rubber without following the manufacturing guidelines. Many companies import medical items without licences while some licensed companies import low-quality items for high profits. The Directorate General of Drug Administration says that only JMI Hospital Requisite Manufacturing Ltd is licensed to manufacture surgical gloves while 10 companies are licensed to import the item. But at least 25 companies now import surgical gloves from countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and China without licence and a large portion of them is substandard.
There are allegations that third parties that buy surgical gloves from unlicensed importers supply them to government hospitals and the authorities do not have any monitoring mechanism. A third party has supplied surgical gloves of the Truecare brand, to mention a case in example, to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation. The gloves are imported from India by the Khulna-based SM Surgical, which does not have any licence to import gloves and yet has never faced any problem in importing and marketing the gloves. Third parties are also reported to have supplied government hospitals with gloves that do not bear the name of the manufacturers. Physicians of government hospitals also say that they find the gloves given to them are substandard and often ask the service seekers to buy quality gloves for them from the market. All this looks worrying, especially when any import of the surgical gloves needs approval from the Directorate General of Drug Administration, which has already set standards for both the producers and importers of gloves. The standards are, however, hardly maintained. What is further worrying is that standards are also largely flouted in manufacturing and importing other medical items. Besides, substandard and spurious medicines have also continued to be manufactured and sold.
The authorities need to realise the grave threat that substandard and counterfeit medical items, equipment and medicines pose to public health. The authorities should, therefore, look into the issue and strictly regulate the manufacturing, import and supply of surgical gloves so that substandard gloves do not enter the market and healthcare facilities. The authorities should also bring those involved in the import and supplying substandard medical items to justice. The authorities should also remain alert to spurious and substandard medicines.
