PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has directed the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to work in collaboration with the police force in order to successfully ensure a continuous and a sustainable search for government medicines alleged to be sold in private medic shops in the country. He said a continuous search would strictly enable to uncover thieves and ultimately take legal measures against those who will be found in illegal possession of the government’s medicines whose part of its supplies ends up in the hands of few traders selling them illegally in their private medical shops. President Kikwete issued the order recently in Dar es Salaam in his key note address speech read on his behalf by the Minister for Health Dr. Hussein Mwinyi during the official inauguration of the State-of-the-art government medical warehouse owned by Medical Stores Department (MSD). The facility which is the biggest ever in the country has been constructed by help of US government and Global fund at a total cost of $ 4 million (approximately Sh. 6.4 billion). It stands in an area of a square meters 4,280 and has the capacity of preserving medicines and other medical facilities for upcountry regions. President Kikwete issued the order when he is optimistic with the fact that, the situation of the medical supplies in public hospitals in rural areas in the country is poor due to scarcity of the government’s medicines and other medical facilities which he said are available for sale in some private medical shops or hospitals. In view of this he has however asked the two bodies to collaborate each other in a bid to ensure an effective control of the illegal sale of the government medicines and other facilities which he said is growing at a higher rate and cause a loss to the government and his people. “The government cannot continue to purchase its medicines at a higher cost for its people and ultimately the bulk end up in the hands of the few unscrupulous traders leaving the majority of the populace especially rural people to die” he said and asked the two bodies to work effectively by using the resources available in order to stop the habit once and for all. Either the President has thanked the US government for its donation as the whole project involved together with MSD workers’ office and their canteen. He has also thanked the Canadian government through its CIDA agency in collaboration with UNICEF for having financed special walk-in cold rooms. The two agencies have also donated two refrigerated vehicles, 32 generators among them 26 generators have a 40 KVA, all of which have at a cost of 3 million Canadian dollars which is equivalent to Sh. 4.5 billion. The 26 generators have been installed in cold rooms almost in all regions in the country, the presence of these generators has increased the preservation capacity for the medicine from cubic liters of 46,561 to 97,144. This is the recommended preservation capacities for three months t the national and regional level. The two refrigerated vehicles will be used for the transportation of the needed medicines to upcountry regions from MSD head office from Dar es Salaam city. These vehicles will be helping to facilitate the availability of medicines to people living in far flung areas. Earlier the Acting Director General of the MSD, Cosmas Mwaifwani reiterated the need for the government store to continue supplying medicines and other medical facilities to medical centre as in the country as per the government directives. Elaborating the President’s order when contacted for comments, he said in an exclusive interview with this paper that, his unit has put down two major ways as strategic means which would also enable the police and some Ministry officials to identify the government’s medicines during their operation. He noted that, all packages of the medicines will bear the MSD emblem as an identification mark alongside with TBS as usual. This he said would be made in such away that it could not be easily tampered by unscrupulous traders while on transit. The second way he said is that, there will be a direct deliveries of their medicines to rural dispensaries or medical centre which shall have been designated for the purpose, however, he noted that, the essence of doing this is to avoid mishandling to the right people concerned. Unlike before, he said that, the deliveries were made directly to the district hospitals or regional hospitals who in turn were supposed to supply their bulk to the designated medical centers an aspect that it was believed some disappeared on the way and could not reach the targeted rural masses. He said, having a MSD emblem would enable police to identify the product belongs to the government and nothing else. Describing about the general performance his organization has shown in recent years as concerns with the situation of the medical supplies in the country, he noted that, the availability of the medical facilities and medicines has increased between 70 and 75 percent compared to 44 percent when the institution was established almost two decades ago. He also noted that, 10 regions have been entered into a regular system of supplying medicines directly from one medical centre to the other. Efforts are hereby taken by his organization to ensure that the system is made applicable to the rest of other regions in the country by July 2013. This is in a bid to curb with any loses that might be caused leading to the mysterious disappearance by some medicines. He further noted that, his organization has installed a newly introduced scientific system known as in short as EPICOR in order tom facilitate the supplying activities of the medicines and other medical facilities, and added that, the system has been financed by USAID. He noted also that, his institution has put down a strategic plan to involve private sector in a move to successfully make available enough medicines in their warehouses once they feel that they might be faced with scarcity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment