Legislators have announced plans to probe circumstances under which drugs weighing 2322Kgs and valued at Shs121, 238,895 expired in the stores of Mubende Regional Referral Hospital, yet during that same time patients were sent away & ordered to buy medicines from the private clinics.
Gorreth Namugga, Vice Chairperson, Public Accounts Committee while meeting officials from Mubende Hospital, where they had been summoned to respond to queries raised in the December 2023 Auditor General Report noted that despite the health facility grappling with challenges of drug stock outs occasioned by late deliveries from National Medical Stores even some of the drugs delivered late got expired and ended up being destroyed.
“We are going to find out where the problem was, if these medicines were delivered to you with all factors constant and it was because of your negligence, of the failure to supervise your people that we had expired drugs, you will make good of the loss. This money will be paid by you. That is why you have to provide all information adequately. You must put your case clear. We are going to carry out more investigation with National Medical Stores (NMS) to find out where the problem was. If it was with Mubende hospital, you are going to pay for these drugs,” said Namugga.
“We pay taxes for purchase of drugs, they come to Mubende and you lock them in the stores, because the expiry is at times due to the failure to give these drugs to the users. So, you have to explain why you have expired drugs to the tune of 2322Kgs? The challenge with expired drugs is that we lose money throughout, you spend money buying them, and also spend money disposing them off, so after looking for money to buy the drugs, you also look for money to dispose off,” added Namugga.
Grania Nakazibwe (Mubende DWR) urged the Committee to probe the issue of delivery of drugs in Mubende saying the constant stock outs have affected access to health services noting, “The fact that NMS doesn’t deliver on time actually affects the kind of service which is delivered to the people and that is why actually, that is why we see so many private facilities mushrooming around regional referral hospitals and I believe this is the gap created by the delivery of medicines.”
Emmanuel Batibwe, Mubende Regional Referral Hospital, Director, informed the Committee that the facility has been experiencing challenges in maintaining adequate stocks of the different medicines in the hospital, mainly because of the shortfalls in the quantities versus orders made and the challenge is further compounded by the delays by NMS to deliver the requisitions made by the Facility.
He also attributed the huge volumes of expired drugs to the changes in the treatment line for HIV and Tuberculosis patients, who saw many health facilities abandon the older line of treatment.
“Overall, you find we have stock outs of many items and if they have been delivered, again they run out faster than you would have expected and that kind of scenario sees patients being requested to procure drugs outside the hospital. There were changes which occurred in some of our drug regimen and as result of that, we had expiry especially those treating HIV and Tuberculosis and if there are changes, you can’t use them nationally,” said Dr. Batibwe.
