Decentralised drug budget not bearing fruits
An assessment of the decentralised 10 percent drug budget to district councils shows that councils are still struggling to sustain stocks of essential medicines and other medical supplies.
Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen), a chair of the Universal Health Coverage Coalition (UHCC), carried out a study to see how local councils are managing the drug budget and impact it is having on efforts towards universal health coverage.
Government decentralised 10 percent of the drug budget to enable councils to buy drugs on their own in the event that the Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) does not have the stocks.
However, the study has established that health facilities are still experiencing drug stockouts, with patients being asked to buy drugs that are not in stock, which is not in line with universal health coverage.
Presenting the study findings in Lilongwe on Thursday, Mhen executive director George Jobe said what is key is to recapitalise CMST and ensure that it has essential medicines and other medical supplies.
He also called for the need to reduce expiration of drugs while in storage.
“We are losing medicines due to expiring while there is high demand for medicines,” Jobe said.
According to the report, the district stakeholders noted that rising costs of drugs on the market are causing massive price fluctuations and increases that make drug budget resources to get quickly depleted.
“The inflation and the forex crisis overall are negatively impacting in securing a steady supply of drugs, even the CMST has been quoted in the media saying the forex shortage is one of the contributing factors to drug stock outs,” reads the report in part.
The study further found that councils want increased allocation for the drug budget, in the range of 20 to 30 percent, to be able to deliver services.
The report has also recommended that the CMST is the best place for councils to procure drugs, but what is needed is to capacitate the Trust so that it has all the drugs and medical supplies.
On his part, Ministry of Health chief pharmacist Charles Chimenya said most district councils are experiencing challenges of drug budget which sees drug stockouts.
However, he said the best solution is not increasing allocation to councils, but ensuring that CMST has the required drug stocks.
“If we keep increasing the allocation to district councils it will affect operations of Central Medical Stores,” he said.
Malawi needs to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. However, the country is facing various challenges ranging from drug stock outs, health infrastructure, workforce, equipment and others.
