Medical Store Department (MSD).
Distribution of medicine in the Kinondoni municipal will commence today (Monday) following weeks of reported shortages in most public health centres and dispensaries.
The health and medical facilities were earlier attributing the shortage to the recently adopted Medical Store Department (MSD) central distribution system of medicines, saying it is not efficient.
The medical facilities further attribute the shortage to what they described as low capacity by MSD and also very low budget allocations for the health centres and dispensaries.
To bridge the demand and efficiency gap, they urge the government to permit a competitor for the supply of medicines to join the sector.
Kinondoni Municipal Medical Officer, Dr Gunini Kamba, told The Guardian in an exclusive interview over the weekend that the main reason behind the shortage of drugs in most public facilities is the main medical supplier’s low operation capacity, which according to him is only at 50 percent.
“There are some drugs which MSD does not have but are very essential to our dispensaries and health centres,” he revealed.
He went on to list some of the vital necessities that are in short supply to include laboratory reagents, HB curvets and hematinic bottles.
“We have to order them from vendors at very high cost…we urge the government to allow for another supplier of medicines to enter the sector and compete with MSD,” he said.
On a different view, the Kinondoni municipal pharmacist, Sophia Mwilingo, told this paper that most medical facilities are running short of stock not because of the new system but rather, because of late order submissions.
“The late orders are caused by the fact that most of these facilities do not have pharmacists responsible for preparing the list,” she explained.
She detailed that the task is being taken up by doctors who have so many other pressing responsibilities and so the end result is that the orders are not made and submitted in time rendering the dispensaries short of needed medicines.
She explained that pharmacists are supposed to submit their requests to her office from where they are then submitted to MSD which issues medicines four times in a year – once in each quarter depending on government budget allocation.
The first quarter is July to September, followed by the second October to December, then the third January to March and finally April to June.
She did however concede that shortage of staff affects the delivery process, saying they have already requested the ministry to employ more pharmacists.
The pharmacist also lamented that government budget allocations to medical facilities were insufficient and as such, forces the centres to use their own money for the procurement of more medicines to meet the demands and this raises operation costs and services charges as well.
Commenting on the allegations, MSD Dar es salaam Zone Manager, Site Mohamed said MSD is neither to blame for the shortage of nor is its operational capacity low.
She refuted the alleged 50 percent operational capacity claiming that it was 75 percent.
The Zone Manager seconded the Kinondoni municipal pharmacist, saying the shortage of drugs is due to late submission of requests. She did however also agree that the shortage is in part due to the inadequate budget allocated to the ministry.
She revealed that Kinondoni dispensaries haven’t yet received their medicines for the quarter running from January to March because they delayed to submit their request which she says they submitted on March 07.
Other municipals that equally delay in submitting their requests, she said, include Rufiji, Mvomero and Mafya.
She was also against the suggestion to bring a competitor to the sector saying it ‘is not a solution’ since the delays were never caused by MSD in the first place but by responsible officers who delayed to make their request submissions.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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