The county government of Nairobi failed to supply drugs and other non-pharmaceutical items to sub-county pharmacists and health facilities, according to the latest audit report.
Nairobi County government to cut ties with KEMSA over a 300 million shilling debt, county to source for drugs from an alternative supplier #KBCNewsHour ^CM pic.twitter.com/VYzyYb7iRM
— KBC Channel1 News (@KBCChannel1) March 29, 2019
In the year 2017/2019, the health facilities were to receive Sh 107, 525, 922 but the money was not disbursed and no reason was given during the audit.
The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) cut the supply over a Sh. 309 million debt that it is yet to recover from the county.
County Deputy Director for Medical Services Irene Muchoki told the public health services committee that the finance department had not honored an agreement where it was to pay Kemsa Sh30 million a month.
EXPIRED DRUGS
According to the audit, the health facilities were stocking expired drugs which are a hazard to the resident of Nairobi and its environs.
According to the report, the last time the health facilities received any drug was in September last year and that many of them are grappling with
Sad state as Nairobi County health facilities are grappling with an acute drug shortage over a Sh309million debt to KEMSA. Drug shortage begun from September 2018…. https://t.co/jtanjCedMu
— Action4Transparency (@a4tkenya) March 29, 2019
According to Muchoki, her department received Sh747 million in the current financial year. Of this, only Sh70 million was used to repay the debt that has accrued since 2014.
MEDICAL CERTIFICATE
The county’s medical certificate unit has also failed to issue medical certifications to food handlers in the city.
This has been attributed to the fact that the county lacks funds to purchase laboratory commodities, certificate books, toners, and stationery.
“I paid for my license in January and until now I have not received the certificate. They told me the certificate books have not been printed. On further inquiring, I was told the supply stopped since the county has a lot of his money,” said a business vendor in the CBD.
In 2017, Kemsa stopped supplying medicine to Nairobi hospitals over a Sh285 million debt, a move which forced patients to buy drugs and other medical supplies from private hospitals and chemists. https://t.co/iwaOJOgdZo
— Gilbert Rono (@GRono) March 31, 2019
The suppliers of certificate books, toners, and stationery have stopped supplying to the county due to the millions of shillings the county owns.