Councils want to manage 50% drug budget

The Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) has proposed to central government to increase to 50 percent the drug budget directly managed by councils.

Speaking in an interview on Friday in Mzuzu after the Pre- Budget Consultation Meeting organised by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Malga Finance Managers Network vice-chairperson Richard Chakhala said the proposed changes will help ease the huge burden of drug shortage in district hospitals.

He said: “We manage budgets for hospitals in the districts. So, we have problems in the sense that the budget is still managed centrally.”

Chakhala said the current system creates delays in the procurement of drugs as well as distribution to various hospitals.

“That is why we have all these persistent drug stockouts. We are concerned as Malga because services are affected in hospitals,” he said.

However, since April 2022, government has been devolving 10 percent of the drug budget to councils to ease drug shortage in hospitals, especially when they are not able to get the supplies from Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST).

Karonga District director of health and social services David Sibale hailed the government for providing the 10 percent relief, but suggested that the percentage be raised to 25 percent.

He said: “We would love that the percentage be moved to 25 because sometimes you may find that the CMST has run out of much of the required drugs.

“However, when buying drugs, our priority will be with the CMST first, and if they don’t, we will be checking with private suppliers.”

During a meeting CMST organised in Blantyre in December 2022, it emerged that some health facilities normally buy drugs from them, but due to stockouts, sometimes they are forced to procure from private suppliers, whose prices are generally exorbitant.

Data from CMST show that district hospitals use between K150 million to K250 million in a month to buy drugs from the trust and private suppliers.

Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe said he will take on board the suggestion Malga has put forward.

He said: “ B u t a government position is coming when all ideas have been scrutinised, figures attached to them and we see if it is the right thing to do or not. The report will be in the actual proposed budget to Parliament.