District hospitals to buy 10% drugs from private sources

Ministry of Health has given district hospitals permission to use 10 percent of their drug budget to buy drugs and medical supplies from private suppliers.

Director of health technical support services Godfrey Kadewere said in an interview yesterday that the arrangement is temporary.

He said: “We don’t want this arrangement to become a norm as we expect drug stock improvements at CMST [Central Medical Stores Trust].

“But because we know that the CMST runs out of supplies at some point, we are saying let’s allow 10 percent of the budget allocated to districts, be put aside to purchase from private sources.”

Kadewere said should the CMST have all drugs, the measure will be discontinued.

Commenting on the arrangement, Karonga district director of health and social services (DHSS) David Sibale yesterday hailed government for the new measure, but requested that the percentage be raised to 25 percent at some point.

He said: “This is a very good step. The challenge has been that when the CMST runs out of drugs, we get stuck and run out of essential drugs.  But now the 10 percent is a bit of a relief.”

Sibale said the 10 percent budget for Karonga means they can use about K35 million to buy drugs from private sources.

Blantyre DHSS Gift Kawalazila said the decision will give district hospitals some relief and would help prevent unnecessary deaths due to lack of drugs.

“It’s going to help a lot, especially on emergency supplies that we might need. So, it’s a step in the right direction,” he said.

Malawi Health Equity Network executive director George Jobe concurred with both Sibale and Kawalazila that the idea will ensure that district hospitals have some drugs when there is drug stock-out at CMST.

Except for central hospitals, the district hospitals were only allowed to buy drugs from the CMST.

However, the CMST has been facing serious stock-outs due to lack of funds and failure to ship in drugs because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the 2019/20 financial year, the drug budget was at K25.9 billion or 25.6 percent of the health budget which was at K101 billion.

In the 2020/21 financial year, the drug budget percentage dropped to 14.4 percent (K28 billion allocation) of the health budget (K195.3 billion).

The majority of the health budget is funded by the donors, who contribute about $250 million annually, according to the World Bank.