Health Minister Dr. Chitalu Chilufya has announced that Government this December has procured drugs to worth 35 million United States Dollars to address succinctly any issues of drug stock outs that have been experienced in the nation, in the past.
Dr. Chilufya said that enough Anti retroviral, Anti Malaria and Anti TB drugs have been stocked to last the entire 2019 bringing stability to the supply chain of essential medicines in the nation.
The Minister who is also the Member of Parliament for Mansa Central in Luapula Province said that the PF Government is determined to provide safe and efficacious drugs to its 16 million citizens.
Dr. Chilufya said this when he toured the newly constructed medical stores hub in the company of Luapula Province Minister, Hon. Nickson Chilangwa in Mansa this morning.
And Hon. Chilangwa revealed that President Lungu will grace the Official opening of the Mansa Medical Stores hub in the first quarter of 2019.
He said the Medical hub constructed at a total cost of 1.6 million dollars would reduce on the last mile inefficiencies in the medicine supply chain.
He further said that the state of the art medical stores hub is just one of the many development projects that are taking shape in the Province stating that Luapula Province is now on a development trajectory as had never been witnessed before.
Well done on this PF ….
But still confused mwe…
“…He said the Medical hub constructed at a total cost of 1.6 million dollars….
….He further said that the state of the art medical stores hub is just …”
How can a simple toll gate cost $4.2 million while a state of the art medical hub warehouse cost only $1.6 million ???
They buy to stock, and dump after expiration.
They are probably worth less than that as they are nearing expiry date!!
Quoting a great son of Africa, Prof Lumumba, the problem in Africa is that we let hyenas take care of goats and when the goats are consumed we wonder why. The hyenas will consume these goats in form of drugs and the drugs will soon find their way to private chemists. A simple act of stamping GRZ on the packages can minimise the pilferage.
Great development
How can buying or doing something that they are supposed to be a great achievement!!
Jay Jay. That is because this statutory requirement of buying drugs was not followed under the UNIP and MMD regimes and we were led to believe that hospitals only give prescriptions to buy drugs at private clinics. And a government that is doing what other governments failed to do should be praised.
Ba Senior Engineer u clearly never lived in or experienced medical services in the UNIP era at it’s “best” don’t always get excited with news u hear … First ask yourself what has happened to all the scandals in health that this Minister is covering up the cost of expired drugs that now have to be thrown away the huge thefts at Medical stores how will these drugs now be guaranteed to reach the end user and not in the DRC? This Minister has a lot to answer …besides we heard we are still owing huge amounts to meds suppliers in the last budget year. What is the source of the US 35 million is it tax payer money proper or is it borrowed too. Zambians let’s ask questions until we get proper systems and accountability in place for posterity we like clapping too quickly.
Shameless. I did live under the UNIP regime. The first 10 years were fantastic building such infrastructures as UTH, UNZA, expanding single lane trunk roads to double lanes, etc until the bubble burst in 1973 because of the high oil prices, drop in copper prices and then we started borrowing to subsidise consumption and the debt rose to US$7 billion only to be redeemed by MMD through SAP under HIPC.
As for drugs being mismanaged see my earlier thread where I talked about hyenas taking care of goats.
so what, when you do what is expected of any sane government. Expect Zambians to go dance in streets. The fact that its news is an indication that its shoddy job and too little too late Zambians have died and are still dying. Shame on this government.
I’m not sure why this is news, isn’t this supposed to be part of their job
why do we need to be told about buying of medicine? Simple panadol (paracetamol) is always out of stock in all hospitals
Ubu puba ba PF chipante pante govt, what’s there to congratulate. This is supposed to be a normal govt function
Who was once treated by this Dr Chilufya? How competent was he? He is more interested to be in the press than tiding up MOH. MOH is more corrupt than the traffic department of Zambia Police.
We celebrate anything even what is a normal function of government. Why does ECL have to grace every event??? Money will be spent on per Diem’s, etc . No need to have a function for everything you monkeys!!!