Washington [US], January 29: The medical unit at the White House is accused of giving drugs to ineligible people and paying for many expensive drugs with equivalent drugs.
Pentagon report shows that the medical unit at the White House under former President Donald Trump provided prescription drugs, including controlled substances, to ineligible employees and spent on The drug costs tens of thousands of dollars more than the equivalent generic drug price.
The above unit of the White House Military Office did not comply with the instructions of the government and the Department of Defense , according to Reuters on January 29, citing the content of the report.
The report found that ineligible personnel received free specialty care and surgery at military medical facilities and were given prescription drugs including controlled substances, in violation of federal law.
"The White House medical unit's pharmaceutical management practices ineffectively used Department of Defense funds by purchasing brand name drugs rather than generic equivalents and increased the risk of diversion of controlled substances." control," according to the report.
The above unit was also said to lack effective control measures to ensure compliance with safety standards, was not under the supervision of military medical system leaders and increased risks to health and safety. patient safety.
Specifically, this unit spent 46,500 USD from 2017-2019 on 8,900 units of Ambien, a branded sleeping pill, 174 times higher than the 270 USD for the equivalent generic drug.
In another case, the unit spent $98,000 for 4,180 doses of Provigil, a branded stimulant, 55 times the $1,800 price of the generic equivalent.
Both drugs were administered without verifying the patient's identity.
The report represents the results of an inspection by the Pentagon 's Office of Inspector General , conducted from September 2019 to February 2020 after receiving a complaint in 2018.
The report makes many recommendations, including that the director of the defense health agency should coordinate with the director of the White House medical unit to develop policies and procedures for drug management, at least on procurement, storage and inventory, prescribing and dispensing and processing.
Responding to the report, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Lester Martinez-Lopez sent a letter to the inspector general concurring with all of the report's recommendations. Mr. Trump did not immediately make related comments.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
