White House medical unit under Trump made mistakes in dispensing medicine?

Đơn vị y tế Nhà Trắng dưới thời ông Trump sai phạm trong cấp thuốc?- Ảnh 1. — Photo of the White House taken on January 26

A Pentagon report found that the White House medical unit under former President Donald Trump provided prescription drugs, including controlled substances, to ineligible staff and spent tens of thousands of dollars more on the drugs than the cost of generic equivalents.

The unit under the White House Military Office did not comply with government and defense department guidelines, Reuters reported on January 29, citing the report.

The report found that ineligible personnel received free specialized care and surgery at military medical facilities and were provided with prescription drugs including controlled substances, in violation of federal law.

“The White House Medical Unit’s pharmacy management practices inefficiently used Department of Defense funds by purchasing brand-name drugs instead of generic equivalents and increased the risk of diversion to controlled substances,” the report said.

The unit was also found to lack effective controls to ensure compliance with safety standards, was not subject to oversight by military health system leadership, and posed increased risks to patient health and safety.

Specifically, this unit spent $46,500 from 2017-2019 on 8,900 units of Ambien, a branded sleeping pill, 174 times higher than the $270 of the equivalent generic drug.

In another case, the company spent $98,000 on 4,180 doses of Provigil, a branded stimulant, 55 times the $1,800 price of the generic equivalent.

Both drugs were dispensed 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 several recommendations, including that the director of the Defense Health Agency should work with the director of the White House Medical Unit to develop policies and procedures for drug management, at a minimum, regarding procurement, storage and inventory, prescribing, dispensing, and disposal.

In response 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 respond to a request for comment.

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