PESHAWAR: Public sector hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have run out of medicines and disposable items as health department has started centralised procurement process, which may further delay supplies to the facilities for patients, according to sources.

They said that district health officers and medical superintendents of hospitals used to purchase medicines and other stuff according to their needs but in the current year directorate-general health services (DGHS) was tasked to purchase drugs and supply the same to districts.

A district health officer said that DGHS office through directorate of drugs and pharmacy prepared medicine coordination committee (MCC)’s list of items and districts were authorised to purchase from the same list. For that purpose, the department released the amount for drugs to districts which they spent as per their own needs, he added.

“However, this year centralised purchase system has been started under which DGHS will procure medicines and make supplies to district hospitals. This will further delay the process of making available drugs at district level,” he said.

Health secretary says procurement process of medicines under way

The DHO said that health department started centralised purchase in 2021-22 at DGHS level but it was in addition to the system under which the district purchased medicines for themselves.

A medical superintendent in one of the central districts told Dawn that hospitals should have got medicine supplies by August last year. He said that only four months were left in the current financial year but they were without medicines.

Sources in health department said that finance department had released Rs3 billion to purchase drugs for about 2,500 health facilities in the province. “The procurement process is in progress but is unlikely to complete soon and districts get medicines,” they said.

They said that the centralised mechanism should be revoked and the old system should be restored under which districts bought medicines at local level from the MCC’s approved list.

Officials at health department said that they sought Rs9 billion from government to purchase medicines but owning to financial constraints, they received Rs3 billion as only a few months were left of the current financial year.

Last month, DGHS through health secretary wrote a letter to government, saying that they faced acute shortage of emergency medicines, anti-rabies vaccine, immunoglobulin and other essential items. He requested the government to release the amount to make procurement for the year 2024. He feared that non-release of the requested amount could lead to lack of medicines for emergencies and subsequent public backlash.

The director general health had pointed out that timely procurement and distribution of essential medicines to hospitals were imperative to prevent potential disruptions that could lead to law and order challenges.

In case of any further delay there might be compromised management of emergencies and suffering of people owing to non-availability of lifesaving vaccines like anti-rabies vaccine and anti-snake venom etc, he said.

He also informed the government that medicine firms and vendors were not ready to supply medicines as the department was required to pay their liabilities.

Senior DHOs said that government should allow districts to make purchase at the local level so that patients could get drugs in a timely manner. They said that the centralised purchase system would cause delay every year.

Health Secretary Mahmood Aslam Wazir told Dawn that procurement process was under way. “DGHS is looking after the matter,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2024