The Africa Institute for Capacity Development (AICD) has offered to assist government with solutions to combating the problem of drug pilferage that leads to shortages of drugs in public hospitals.
The institute’s admission consultant Abel Mkandawire said in an interview the problem of drug pilferage was alarming and that expertise is needed in various government hospitals and agencies to end it.
He said: “As a training institution, we have the expertise and ways we think can help government eradicate the problem. Too much is happening and nothing seems to be done. We can assure that the problem can be addressed.”
Mkandawire advised that his institution can save the country a lot of foreign exchange if organisations use it to fight against the malpractice.
Porosity of the country’s borders has for a long time affected the health system with drugs being sold in neighbouring countries at the expense of the health of Malawians.
Recently, Malawian anti-retroviral drugs hit South Africa’s black markets, especially in Johannesburg, a proof that drug pilferage was real.
Minister of Health Peter Kumpalume is on record as having said that drug and medical supplies theft was estimated at K5 billion per year, representing a third of the ministry’s then drug budget of about K17 billion. n
