The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) is currently experiencing a critical drug shortage.
Officials from the GPHC and the Ministry of Public Health, appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday, said drugs such as Aspirin, B-Complex and paracetamol are not available. In addition, the GPHC is awaiting Cabinet’s approval to purchase drugs necessary for kidney transplant patients.
“The corporation needs drugs. I have a list of the items that are unavailable. If a patient needs a particular drug urgently, well that drug is being purchased but, right now, even aspirin, paracetamol and B-complex are not in stock. We have kidney transplants being conducted at the hospital those drugs are expensive. We have our Oncology Depart-ment, which needs drugs. Those are expensive. Even when we get supplies we do not get supplies in adequate quantities,” Yvonne Bullen, Administrative Manager of the hospital pharmacy, told the PAC.
In total Bullen provided the committee with a list of 186 drugs which were either completely out of stock, in very low supply (one week or less) or in short supply (less than one month).
This declaration, which was greeted by exclamations of shock from the members of the PAC, followed the revelation that the GPHC, as of Decem-ber, 2015, owes $500 million to drug suppliers. The bulk of this sum is, according to hospital representatives, owed to the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC), which is the primary supplier of drugs and medical supplies to the public health care system.
“You have outstanding payments to suppliers and you have critical drugs that you need. Is that an accurate summation of the situation?” Committee Chair-person Irfaan Ali asked.
GPHC CEO Alan Johnson affirmed the position.
Committee Member Jermaine Figuiera then reminded the committee that over $99 million in drugs had to be destroyed in November, 2015, because they were expired.
“Are these drugs not being properly stored or are they bought with a low shelf life? How can we cry shortage when hundreds of millions of dollars in drugs are having to be destroyed?” he asked.
Johnson and his team again affirmed both positions. He explained that having assumed the position of CEO in September, 2015, he hired a pharmacist and clerks to work at the GPHC bond. These new personnel were unable at that time to source an inventory of the contents of the bond, since there was no one there to tell them what was present or their shelf life. In addition, a large quantity of drugs were damaged by flooding in the bond since they had been stored on the floor.
Further compounding the situation was the fact that drugs with a short shelf life were being purchased.
Bullen, who was also employed in 2015, explained that “drugs were being delivered with expiry dates as soon as four months from the date of delivery. Some are ordered from India, where it takes about 9 months to travel to Guyana and I don’t know how long it takes to be cleared but when they arrive they have a short usage period.”
She further noted that the numbers of ordered drugs seem to be inflated. In “one instance 220,000 tablets were ordered but when the item came it was 6 million tablets. There were also drugs ordered that were not on the hospital formulary,” she added.
Most of these issues were laid at the feet of CEO Michael Khan, who it was reported would often tell department managers that “they don’t know what the hospital needs.”
PPP/C Committee member Juan Edghill was not pleased with these reports. He urged the professionals gathered not to accuse another professional in a forum where he was not present to defend himself.
Johnson explained that when confronted with the situation, one of his first moves was to stop a contract which was seeing the importation of drugs that were not needed. He then made the decision based on the corporation’s cash flow to order drugs that would be needed until December and January.
“We [were] ordering drugs with short self-life, ordering our drugs from New GPC and storing them at New GPC. I stop-ped that contract,” he said.
“That cannot be how we manage health,” Ali declared, “You can’t order based on cash flow. If you order now, there is a lag time between the ordering and delivery, which can lead to the situation being described by Ms Bullen.”
The Finance Director was asked what measures had been taken to make available funds to purchase drugs for the corporation.
It was at the point that Johnson noted that the GPHC has asked for a supplementary budget allocation since October 2015 but has yet to receive the requested funds.
The entire delegation was instructed to meet urgently with Finance Secretary Dr Hector Butts so that the matter could be settled.
A meeting has been scheduled for today.
