Government has established the National Supply Chain Coordination Unit Control (NSCCU) to improve coordination among partners in the medical supply chain to mitigate the shortage of drugs in the country.
Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services, Lackson Kasonka says government has also increased the medicines and medical supplies budget allocation from 1.4 billion Kwacha to K4.6 billion in 2023 in order to address the drug shortages.
Speaking when he officiated at the National Supply Chain Review Meeting Organized by Ministry of Health and other Co-operating partners in the supply Chain, Prof Kasonka said government has also established medicines and medical supplies Fund to support the procurement of medicines and medical supplies for public health facilities in the country.
Prof. Kasonka has also disclosed that government through the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA) has expanded the national laboratory in order to improve the global status of regulation and quality control of medicines in the country.
He said the Ministry of Health intends to maintain a consistency level of disbursement of grants to hospitals and districts to facilitate the emergency procurement threshold from four percent for districts and 10 percent for hospitals to 30 percent.
Prof. Kasonka said the long term measures are expected to translate into improved availability of medicines and medical supplies in health facilities.
He added that the Ministry of Health is supported by 28 procurement and supply chain partners in order to address critical issues across the supply chain.
Prof. Kasonka said government has realigned the procurement function of medicines and medical supplies from the Ministry of Health to the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA) to ensure efficiency and responsiveness in the procurement of medicines and medical supplies in the country.
THE PRBLEM IS ‘STEALING’ THIEVING, PILFERING’ OF MEDICINES A SKILL WHICH WAS TAUGHT TO CIVIL SERVANTS BY THE PF THEVING GORVERNMENT. FOR IT WAS A ‘FOLLW THE LEADER GAME’
People have just failed don’t try to pass the blame
How come we never experienced this type of drugs in the health facilities in the past… there used to be sporadically but now it’s s complete drought.
Close all PF pharmacies opened near and around hospitals and clinics. Prescriptions by doctors for clinics and hospitals need to be monitored and logged at every hospital or clinic pharmacy for medicine collection.
This idea of pf this and upnd that has completely palarysed everything in this country. We hy can’t we work together as citizens to improve this country. Even where you can see a clear as solution or problem we are busy going round. I feel sorry for the generation of children we are creating out of this animosity. One day we will pay a heavy price.
I said it the other day and got ‘educated’ by a upnd praise singer who has zero % of knowledge about that sector. These chaps just went on a jolly to Egypt to put in train a very lucrative corrupt pipeline for cheap and probably dangerous drugs whose side effects these loofs have not even investigated.
This deep-rooted hatred between UPND and PF is casing a lot of misery in this country. It does not benefit anybody by having a divided nation on the basis of political lines. The clergy which is supposed to be the salt of this nation to help promote peace love and unit is now where to be seen. We will eventually reap what we are sawing.