A pharmacy assistant technical officer has been jailed for five years after stealing 30,000 dihydrocodeine and diazepam tablets from Ninewells hospital, Dundee.
The Dundee Evening Telegraph and Post reported on June 21 that Dundee High Court had been told that lax procedures had made the theft possible. The ATO, Mr Gavin Gowans, had been able to make false entries on the pharmacy computer system because it was common practice for people authorised to issue Controlled Drugs to leave computer terminals "open", Mr Martin Jones (advocate depute) said.
The court heard that the pharmacy department's then clinical director (Mrs Lucy Burrow) had become concerned about the issue of unusually large amounts of medicines towards the end of 1998 and had notified the police. At about the same time, the police had received confidential information that large quantities of medicines were being taken from the pharmacy by an individual known as "Gav". Subsequent investigation had revealed the apparent issue of much larger amounts of medicines to some hospital wards than was usual.
On June 16, 1999, the chief pharmacist had told the police that 9,000 dihydrocodeine tablets had been recorded as issued to one ward but had not been taken from the pharmacy stocks. Police had kept observation over the stock, but no attempt had been made to remove it.
A search of Mr Gowan's home had revealed a bag of 2,000 diazepam tablets.
Mr Gowan had co-operated with police inquiries and pleaded guilty to charges of theft and attempted theft.
Mrs Burrow told The Journal on July 18 that security had since been reviewed at the pharmacy department.
"We have an old system which did not have password traceability," she said. "We now have password traceability." Also, terminals did not automatically disconnect from the file server after a period of idleness.
The importance of not leaving terminals unmanned and to log off the system when transactions were completed had been emphasised to staff. The department also monitored the movement of "attractive" stock on a weekly basis.
Mrs Burrow explained that one of the lessons that had been learnt was that it was important to monitor the movement of low value items that were attractive to potential thieves and not to restrict monitoring to high value items and directorates that wanted to watch their costs. Total usage was also significant and not only changes in issues to individual wards.
Mrs Burrow, who is now trust chief pharmacist for the Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes Ninewells hospital, added that the department was bidding for a new computer system and that the theft strengthened the case.