Govt sued over drug stock-outs

Parents and children at the children’s ward at Mulago National Referral Hospital on May 26, last year. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • The law suit against the Attorney General (AG) and the National Medical Stores (NMS), was filed by Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (Cehurd). 

A civil society organisation has sued government over the recent crisis of essential drug stock-outs in public hospitals across the country.

The law suit against the Attorney General (AG) and the National Medical Stores (NMS), was filed by Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (Cehurd). 

Cehurd contends that the government’s omissions violated the rights of patients.

“The omission by the respondents (NMS and AG) to ensure timely distribution of essential medicines and medical supplies, is a serious breach of their duty under Section 4 (b) of the NMS Act and a violation of the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the right to life, right to health and respect for human dignity and protection from inhumane treatment under Article 24 and 44 (a) of the Constitution,” the documents filed before the High Court in Kampala yesterday, reads in part.

According to the petitioner, NMS has a duty to distribute essential medicines and other medical supplies to government health hospitals and that it has since failed to execute the said duty, hence the law suit to hold it liable.

Last month, there was a public outcry after health facilities across the country experienced  drug stock-outs, a scenario that saw some of the patients who entirely depend on government drugs, miss between two and three cycles of supply.

Officials at NMS, attributed the glitch to financial bottlenecks that had crippled its operations across the country this financial year. 

According to Cehurd, the continuous stock-out of essential medicines and health supplies has far reaching consequences on the public health system as it risks the lives of patients, especially those in need of daily medicines such as pregnant women, persons with HIV/Aids and persons with TB, among others. The filing of the law suit comes at the time when NMS revealed that they had resumed distributing the said medicines to government hospitals in a  phased manner.

Mr Moses Kamabare, the NMS general manager, on Tuesday pegged the “full or sustained” distribution of the drugs to the availability of funds by the government.

“We received the funds we had asked for and we immediately started delivering drugs to health facilities after the Prime Minister (Robinah Nabbanja) discussed the matter on the floor of Parliament,” he said on Tuesday.

Health minister Jane Ruth Aceng blamed the lack of essential drugs in public hospitals on the Finance ministry, whom she accused of releasing limited funds to NMS despite an increase in distribution costs.

Petition

The petitioner wants court to order NMS and the government to collectively establish and maintain a system for proper, effective and timely distribution of essential medicines and health supplies.