E-drug: Evidence for some of the reasons as to why stockouts occur
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Dear E-drug Users,
Uganda, a country in East Africa, has a population of 24.6million people
and an area of 241,000 sq. km. For now, we have two national referral
hospitals. One of these is Mulago Hospital. The Monitor newspaper is
one of two leading newspapers in the country. 1Shs is equal to US
Dollars 0.00057. The article below appeared in The Monitor. You may wish
to read on about what happens to the management of drugs and sundries in
Mulago hospital. Nevertheless when you have read the article below, we
still must train people in good pharmacy management, and Clinical
Pharmacy. Please read on.
George Kibumba, MPS.,
Teaching Assistant, Clinical Pharmacy, Dept of Pharmacy,
Makerere University, P.O BOX 7072, Kampala, Uganda.
Private: P.O BOX 33543, Kampala, Uganda.
E-mail: kibumba@yahoo.com
Mobile: 256-78-430 080.
Mulago operates for 9 months without drugs
By Isabirye Musoke
July 4, 2004
Kampala - Mulago Hospital last financial year remained open for nine
months without drugs and other essential supplies due to inadequate
funding.
The Minister of Health, Brig. Jim Muhwezi, said this in a health policy
statement presented to Parliament last week. "One of the greatest
achievements for the hospital during 2003/2004 was to keep operational
for the whole financial year, despite the grossly inadequate funding,"
he said.
"Under normal conditions the hospital should have been closed for 270
days (nine months) of the financial year because its non-wage funding is
only 26% of the budget required to run it, especially for drugs and
sundries," he added.
Muhwezi said under-funding severely affected the supply of drugs, food
for patients, maintenance of medical equipment, training, service
contracts, general supplies which included staff uniforms and operating
clinical equipment.
Whereas the hospital required Shs37.5 billion for financing non-wage
operations, only Shs9.9 billion (26%) was approved.
C 2004 The Monitor Publications
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