Director of Regional Health Services Dr. Kay Shako has announced that a supply of drugs, inclusive of insulin, has arrived in the country and will be distributed shortly.
Shako’s announcement follows concerns raised by several regional officials over the inadequate supply of insulin and other drugs.
In a recent interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), Shako explained that insulin, a drug used in the treatment of diabetes, and other drugs have arrived in the country and countrywide distribution is set to start shortly.
She further noted that health facilities across the country, particularly those faced with insulin shortages, can expect an updated supply of these and other drugs after they are cleared from a local port-of-entry by the Ministry of Public Health.
Stabroek News last week reported on the concerns expressed by officials in three regions who asked that the issue be addressed by the government for the benefit of patients who depend on the public supply of insulin.
Region Three Chairman Julius Faerber, told Stabroek News that inadequate supplies of insulin have been a concern for the region for some time now and there has been no sign of an intervention from the Ministry of Public Health.
Faerber revealed that both the Leonora Diagnostic Centre and the West Demerara Regional Hospital have been without supplies for several months now. The situation is said to be the same at health centres across the region, particularly those in riverain areas, the Chair-man added.
Thus, diabetic patients who would usually benefit from a public supply of insulin have been forced to buy their medication from private pharmacies.
This situation, he said, has caused some persons to become frustrated as many cannot afford to purchase the drug. Persons in riverain areas are also at a disadvantage as they also cannot readily source the insulin.
Similar sentiments were shared by Regional Chairman of Region Six David Armogan, who told Stabroek News that the shortage of insulin continues to be a frequent occurrence in his region.
He explained that, because of the high number of insulin-dependent persons in the region, there has been, and will continue to be, a heavy demand for the drug.
Armogan further noted that while the region would have been able to replenish its supply recently, the supplies are inadequate since it is mostly only available for internal use; out-patients are now expected to purchase their own supplies. “From time to time, we would receive some supplies from the material unit from Georgetown; other times, we have to buy our own supplies but we don’t always have the funds available,” he said.
Region Two is also said to be facing similar issues but it was recently able to replenish its stock with supplies from the Ministry of Public Health.
“We had a shortage but we recently received some supplies from the ministry and we bought some as well,” a regional official, who did not want to be named, told Stabroek News.
Meanwhile, a GINA report alluded to statements made by the Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, where he highlighted the Ministry’s new decentralised system for drug procurement as a possible contributor to the shortage.
“There is no doubt about the fact that we have changed from a system we had before where we had central procurement in terms of deciding what the country needs, and then sending out to the various regions. We changed from that where the regions can now decide what they want and send down the list to the Ministry of Public Health, and we procure for them and then send it out to them (regions). That has caused a lot of delay,” the Minister was quoted as saying.
Offering some insight on the new system, Norton highlighted the completion of Combined Received and Issued Vouchers (CRIVs), the forms used when requesting drugs and other medical supplies from the central stores in Georgetown. Medical personnel, including pharmacists and pharmacy assistants have been trained in completing the document.
He stated that some regions have not yet adjusted to the new system as some persons who have the responsibility of completing the CRIVs at health institutions, for submissions to the Materials Management Unit (MMU), are not fully compliant in completing this task.
“The CRIVs which the regions are supposed to send to MMU are all done in a haphazard, inefficient manner and data that is supposed to be declared, there is no compliance. Besides that, we know for a fact that these persons were trained and they should know how to do it. It is not rocket science; I can’t see why is it that if they were asked to send certain data to help with the filling up of these CRIVs, why it is not being done. I get the impression that things have been left unmonitored for a very long time, and it’s going to take an uphill task for us to get this in place,” the Minister told GINA.
In an effort to begin the drug distribution, Minister Norton and a team of health officials visited a number of health facilities in Region One over the past weekend, delivering drugs and other medical supplies to those areas that had reported drug shortages, the GINA release stated.
