KA hospital runs out of essential drugs

Ministry of Health has ordered the Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) to supply drugs to Karonga District Hospital, which has gone over a month without essential medicines.

The hospital has been hit hard by the shortage of drugs in the Northern Region.

Karonga acting district health officer Lewis Tukula said CMST stopped supplying drugs because the district exhausted its 2016/17 budget for medicines last month.

In an interview, he explained: ‘‘The annual budget was depleted, but we will be receiving drugs to take us for a month as negotiations are underway for the way forward,’’ he said.

Tukula blamed the crisis on increasing of drug prices and low budgetary allocation. The hospital was allocated K213 million this fiscal year.

However, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in Karonga has warned that the financial crisis will continue compromising the treatment of patients in public hospitals if extra funds will not be sourced quickly.

The district has 15 health facilities serving a population of about 300 000. n