Museveni to health officials: Solve the problem of drug theft in hospitals

President Yoweri Museveni has called on the Ministry of Health to find a lasting solution to the problem of theft of drugs from Ugandan hospitals which are later sold to medical centres in neighboring countries.

“We call this the National Medical Stores, I think we should change it and call it Great Lakes Medical Stores, the drugs here are shared by the whole of the great lakes, when you go to Congo, just over the border you will find these drugs there and in South Sudan,” he said.

Mr Museveni made the remarks while commissioning the Shs69 billion state of the art National Medical Stores (NMS) pharmaceutical warehouse and office complex at Kajjansi Town Council, Wakiso District on Thursday.

“Of course our neighbors need those drugs but we need a better system, other than planning for the Uganda health centres and then the drugs end up in the whole of the central Africa, that means nobody will get served, the Ugandans will not get served enough but even the neighbors will not get enough,” he noted.

“Secure the ones for Uganda, make sure they go where they are supposed to go and find solutions for other areas which have got security problems like in South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic,” he said.

Museveni said government is determined to get out of dependency on the issue of drugs and vaccines by producing its own drugs and vaccines soon.

The Minister of Health, Ms Jane Ruth Aceng, said the commissioning of the complex is a demonstration of the government’s commitment to ensuring the availability of quality essential medicines and health supplies to government health facilities for the benefit of all Ugandans.

“Over the years, the volume of essential medicines’ and health supplies handled by NMS has increased. In 2012 the volume handled was Shs185.5 billion and as of June 2022 it’s Shs2.38 trillion,” she said.

Ms Aceng said there is need for government to avail operational funds for the distribution of essential medicines and health supplies to NMS in a timely manner to enable it deliver drugs to hospitals on time.

The General Manager NMS Mr Moses Kamabare said the new warehouse will provide 30,000 more storage space for essential medicines and health supplies.

“It has 30,000 pallet positions with ambient temperature to store dru. It also has a cold room capacity of 4,200 cubic litres. This effectively increases our storage capacity fourfold thus giving NMS the capacity to serve our people much better,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Mr Seth Berkley said the facility which is the largest pharmaceutical and technologically advanced facility on the continent will provide a sacred goal of providing vaccines.

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