A delegation from Kasese District, which visited National Medical Stores (NMS) in Entebbe, was on Friday shocked to learn that stocks of HIV/Aids drugs were lying idle at NMS after respective districts failed to collect them.
“We are stuck with Antiretroviral drugs. We wonder where patients who had started the ART medicines are. Should we assume that they all died?” said NMS General Manager Moses Kamabare.
He said NMS have discovered that districts request for a lot of medicines during the procurement process but they collect less, leaving a lot of uncollected balance in the national stores.
Mr Kamabare added that NMS’ major challenge is not shortage of drugs but the space to keep them since a lot is ordered but never collected by the respective claimants.
“It can be understandable for other illnesses like malaria for the reduction of cases but not for HIV/Aids patients. We have a toll free line but we have never received any communication for any adjustments in drug supply,” he said.
Mr Kamabare said NMS faces challenges of absenteeism of health workers, theft and diversion of medicines and time of opening and closing the health centres.
“The monitoring of the performance of health workers is solely the responsibility of local governments. But because they have not done their part, health workers use it as a cover to claim that there are no medicines yet they are requisitioned every two months,” he said.
He denied allegations that NMS was dumping unwanted medicines to the health centres. He said they procure as per procurement plan and supply as per orders received.
Mr Kamabare said some administrators of health centres request for medicines that are not relevant to the common ailments in their health centres.
Kasese District health inspector, Mr Ericana Bwambale, who was part of the team, admitted that the health department was to blame for the mess in the health sector in the district.
“I admit that there have been gaps between the procurement process and orders. I have realised that everything is done during procurement plan but when it comes to orders, we do not reconcile the records hence leaving the NMS with either too much to procure or less depending on the situation at hand,” Mr Bwambale said.
He confirmed that some HIV/Aids patients had defaulted on the treatment, leaving ARVs idle in stores. He did not reveal why it was happening.
The team was led by Kasese deputy RDC Mr Aminadabu Muhindo.
However, when this newspaper sought for a comment from the acting Kasee District health officer, Dr Yusuf Baseke, he denied the allegations. He said the district had not had any shortfall of ARVs.
“Who told you that we lack ARVs? For us we order according to the number of patients we have in the district. If the NMS is complaining about the availability of ARVs, they should consult their records and see how much each district requested for and who never took according to the orders made,” he said.
Previous case
In 2013, an announcement was hung at Kilembe Mines Hospital noticeboard calling the Village Health Teams to trace ARV defaulters where more than 1,000 patients had missed their routine medicines.
