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Drug theft irks pharmacists

Pharmaceutical Society of Malawi (Phasom) has condemned the rise in cases of theft of medical drugs in the country’s public hospitals and has called for the speedy disposal of cases in courts.

In a statement signed by Phasom president William Mpute and secretary general Jeremiah Kabaghe, the pharmacists said it was disheartening that drug

Drug theft is once again on the rise

the country is battling with medicine shortages and stock-outs in public hospitals.theft is happening even when

Reads the statement in part: “Phasom condemns the vice in the strongest terms and hopes there will be speedy conclusions of these cases in the court of law.

“It is also the society’s expectation to see the courts of law treat those found guilty in accordance with the stipulations of the current Pharmacy and Medicines Regulatory Authority (PMRA) Act.”

Chikumbe: We are doing all we can to stop it

Phasom is a registered body of pharmacy professionals. It was established to foster high standards of pharmacy practice in all disciplines of the pharmacy profession.

It said its reaction is to the recent drug theft incident reported on December 22 2021 in Lilongwe that followed several previous arrests of suspects, but their cases have stalled in courts.

Phasom then called on the public to play its role in fighting against drug theft by not providing market for stolen medicines, by getting medicines from certified premises.

The group said regulatory authorities also have a role to play in ensuring each and every registered premise is keeping medical supplies appropriate with the registration status and that sources of medicines are well traced.

In 2016, former minister of Health Dr. Peter Kumpalume revealed that government was annually losing over K5 billion worth of drugs to theft.

However, the latest revelation from the Universal Health Coverage Coalition (UHC) indicates that the country is losing 30 percent of the national drug budget to the vice, which means losses from the malpractice jumped from K5 billion in 2016 to K7 billion.

A 2016 Global Fund survey revealed that 35 percent of drugs found in private healthcare facilities were diverted from Malawi’s public healthcare system and the cases still exist despite several interventions to curb the malpractice.

The 2021/22 budgetary allocation for drug procurement is K16 billion, down from K17 billion in the 2020/21 National Budget.

Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said on Wednesday the ministry has done a lot of practical interventions to arrest drug theft.

He said two studies the ministry conducted in 2015 and 2017 established root causes of drug theft and actual stages the malpractice occurs and who was involved.

Chikumbe said: “We found out that while the public’s common knowledge was that drugs are stolen by medical personnel, the picture was different.

“The study uncovered that drugs were largely being stolen during procurement transportation and storage at warehouses, among others.”

He said government installed closed-circuit television (cctv) in all warehouses, installed biometric systems where all officials managing drugs use fingerprints at Central Medical Stores Trust and hired private security with sniffing dogs in a bid to fight the malpractice.

Chikumbe said currently all vehicles transporting drugs from Central Medical Stores Trust have tracking devices. He said the gadgets also detect any malpractice during transportation of drugs.

Besides, he said all district hospitals have a three-way lock system where the warehouse or drug store is locked with a key kept by the hospital manager, another kept by the pharmacist and a third one kept by a traditional leader to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of drugs at facility level.

However, Chikumbe expressed concern that what remains is the community ombudsman where communities must track public drugs found in private clinics and drug stores.

At the ministry level, he said they established the Anti-Drug Theft Unit which works with the Malawi Police Service where at district level there is a specialised police officer.

Health rights activist Maziko Matemba hailed the development from Phasom in condemning the malpractice in public hospitals.

He said: “They have to be commended for taking this important stand among some medical personnel and this is in the right direction but more need to be done in sensitisation of their membership if some are involved in this behaviour”.

On steps the government should employ to arrest the malpractice, Matemba said since Phasom has committed to end the vice, government should take advantage in ensuring that those involved are brought to book. The United States government has been supporting the government of Malawi in setting up strong security measures aimed at curbing drug theft in the country.

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