Cabinet has approved the sum of $700m for the purchase of essential drugs, GINA reported last night and Health Minister Dr George Norton told Stabroek News that supplies to tackle the H1N1 virus will be single-sourced from New GPC.
In recent weeks, concerns have been raised in the public about whether there are adequate medical supplies in the system. The move also comes as Guyana faces two relatively new threats: the H1N1 virus and the mosquito-borne ZIKV.
GINA said that the essential and other medicines under the $700m outlay would be for health facilities in all ten administrative regions.
The Ministry of Public Health has reported that existing stocks are expected to last until the end of this month, and arrangements will be fast-tracked to deal with any emergency situations, GINA said.
According to GINA, on January 12th, Cabinet was briefed about the current stock levels of pharmaceuticals and other medicine supplies in the health sector, and approved monies to buy medication to treat any outbreak of the H1N1 viral influenza. The government, GINA said, has approached a single source to provide the medication as a precaution in the event that anyone should be at risk from the viral influenza. The GINA release didn’t name the single source but Norton said that it was NGPC.
It is ironic that NGPC has been approached as when in opposition, the two parties now in the governing coalition had strongly criticized single-sourced contracts to the company and the large amounts of awards to it.
GINA said that in approving $700M for fresh supplies, the Guyana Government has opted to implement a fair and open bidding process for all suppliers in the pharmaceutical industry to have an opportunity to secure contracts.
GINA said that the Ministry of Health has received support from the USAID to develop a new standard for an open, competitive bidding system. A bidding document to this effect was approved by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board following which a pre-bid meeting with all potential bidders was held on December 16th 2015.
