The Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng and The State Minister for Finance in charge of General Duties, Henry Musasizi, disagreed in Parliament over factors related to stock out of essential drug supplies in hospitals.
During plenary sitting on the 1st of February 2023, Dr. Aceng presented several factors as to why the National Medical Stores have not effectively delivered drug supplies.
She attributed this to the inefficiency of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to release the required funds to facilitate the National Medical Stores on time.
Mr. Kasaijja however noted that he was indeed shocked by these developments and was not aware of what was happening at the National Medical Stores
“I don’t know where you have picked it, I don’t know whether they are complaining that they have not been given money to buy drugs and supply them to our various medical institutions. There could be; either their budget item or they have been overwhelmed by demand and the budget which we have is not sufficient to cover but otherwise, health as a sector when we are frontloading money is one of those that become among the first,” Kasaija said.
The chairing speaker Hon Tayebwa directed that Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to hold an urgent meeting with the two ministers before reporting to the House in under 24 hours.
The National Medical Stores is a Government agency under the Ministry of Health mandated to procure, store and distribute human medication and health-related consumable items to all health units in the country. It has a predetermined schedule of delivering drugs to hospitals twice in every 60 days in six cycles of the year.
This story continues to develop,