A recently concluded regional audit of drugs and medical supplies has uncovered over $1 billion in expired medication and medical supplies, according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.
“So from that report, having concluded the audit in every region, we have been able to ascertain that in the ten regions we have had another $1.1 billion of expired medications, medical supplies and laboratory and diagnostic supplies,” Anthony told reporters yesterday.
The ministry previously revealed that an audit at the Materials Management Unit (MMU) showed that there was about $10 billion worth of expired medicines that were at that bond and had to be dumped. All of these supplies, including the latest discovery, he noted, expired before the new administration took office.
That audit, he mentioned, prompted the audit of supplies in each region to ascertain whether there were expired drugs, supplies and reagents.
Giving a breakdown of the findings, Anthony noted that in Region One there were expired supplies to the tune of $22.6 million, with $33,000 worth of supplies in Region Two, $507 million in Region Three, $484,000 in Region Four, $395.5 million in Region Five, $202 million in Region Six, $40.7 million in Region Seven, $24.6 million in Region Eight, $41,000 in Region Nine, and $3.3 million in Region Ten.
Additionally, Anthony noted that while this was discovered, the ministry was able to validate the stock of supplies given to each region as he noted that some $5.6 billion in pharmaceuticals were validated across the different regions, with $877 million in medical supplies, and $5 billion of diagnostic supplies being validated regionally.
The minister noted, “So while we have been able to validate what was expired in those regions we have also been working very hard to replenish and to make sure that they have adequate medicines to continue doing their work”.
He added that the reasons why there were expired medications can be varied, however one issue that was observed was that the doctors were not prescribing drugs that were in stock. Anthony said, “If you are buying things that the doctors are not using, obviously these things are going to be left back”.
What also contributed to the situation, he said, was the then Ministry of Public Health in 2017 ordering the same thing twice. This, he said, could have been stopped but that duplication along with many of the medications having short expiry dates exacerbated the issue. When asked if there was ever an issue of expired supplies being purchased, he said he would not be able to specifically speak to that. Anthony noted that while there have been rumours of such, he would prefer to have a special report from the auditors and subsequently disseminate that information.
With the findings, he mentioned that the system has been changed and there is now more centralised procurement.
“In that way you will get more drugs for less cost ’cause you are buying in bulk and I think that’s the advantage of now changing back the system to what it was”, he said.
Meanwhile, Anthony stated that the authorities will now have to use the information uncovered in the audit to have someone held accountable as billions of dollars were lost.
