NMS Responds as Mpuuga Calls for Probe over Expired Medicines

The National Medical Stores (NMS) has dismissed reports that its officials are benefiting from the destruction of expired drugs.

This was after the leader of opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga claimed the country was grappling with drug stock-outs because NMS officials make money from the budget allocated to destroying expired drugs. 

“From Regional Referral Hospitals to General Hospitals down to the lowest healthcare unit, one discovery is coming out; a seeming syndicate, a scam at NMS to make a kill out the budget for destroying expired medicines,” said Mpuuga on Sunday.

Mpuuga further alleged that a “cartel at NMS prefers to keep drugs until they expire so that they can come to Parliament with a huge supplementary budget request to destroy the expired medicines.”

In response, NMS said it “has never, and has no intention of, requesting supplementary funds from Parliament” to destroy expired drugs.

“Expired drugs that we have had at our stores do not include Antimalarials but have mainly been ARVs that expired due to a change of treatment guidelines by the World Health Organisation and, subsequently, the Ministry of Health when more effective ARVs were made available on the market,” said NMS in a statement on Sunday night. 

NMS said it routinely delivers medicines monthly to National Referral Hospitals and once every two months to Regional Referrals, General hospitals and Health center IVs, IIIs and IIs.

“Delays in the delivery of medicines to all health facilities that occasioned the combining of cycles last Financial Year (FY) resulted from the late receipt of funds for the delivery of medicines from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MOFPED),” said NMS in a statement late on Sunday.

“This issue was presented on the floor of Parliament in a detailed statement by the Hon. Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, on Wednesday, 1st February 2023, confirmed as accurate, and a solution agreed upon in a meeting chaired by the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister in the same month.”

Mpuuga is currently on an ‘oversight tour’ in different parts of the country where he has been visiting public hospitals. 

The opposition figure said Bukomansimbi and Masaka districts put in requests for antimalarials owing to the high malaria prevalence but some people at NMS preferred to supply cough mixtures. 

“NMS has not supplied any district or local government health facility with cough mixtures/syrups for over five years since they are not part of any health facility’s procurement plan,” the agency emphasised.

“It is, therefore, not true that NMS substituted antimalarials with cough mixtures as alleged. NMS encourages any health facility that received cough mixtures as an alternative for antimalarials to adduce evidence.”

Stockouts

ChimpReports understands that drug stock-outs are mainly a result of theft of drugs, health facilities failing to make their orders on time and artificial shortages caused by staff. 

A recent study showed that some of the lower health facilities such as health center IVs, IIIs and IIs delay making their orders and that perhaps means that they do not have patients. 

Artificial shortages can also be caused by doctors prescribing drugs which aren’t available in the health facility rather than those in the facility. 

For example, a patient may present with malaria and instead of being given a coartem available within the health facility, he or she is referred to a private pharmacy to buy another drug.

Mpuuga said, “Before this leg of our tours, most health facilities had missed 4 out of the 6 cycles in the supply chain of medicines and sundries,” adding, “When they hear that the LOP is coming to a particular district, they rush and make delivery of all the cycles missed in the year.”

He emphasised: “We are therefore going to ask for a special parliamentary inquest into the scam at National Medical Stores.”

NMS today said delivery of all medicines and medical supplies to all health facilities is based on a predetermined delivery schedule shared with all health facilities and not by any individual’s program.

Prevention strategy

In its statement , NMS said the Government of Uganda’s Malaria Reduction Strategy Plan is focused on prevention rather than treatment. 

“That is why the Government of Uganda has mobilised resources and partners to procure, store and distribute the Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Mosquito Nets (LLINs),” said NMS, adding, “Alongside the routine deliveries, NMS is currently distributing 28.5 million Mosquito nets up to the parish level in a phased manner.”

NMS recently recruited the last mile clerks who go on the service provider’s truck to witness the delivery of medicines and medical supplies to each health facility.

The entity also obtained a modern technology system from the United States that allows in-charges of health facilities to make orders online, enhancing transparency in the distribution of medicines.