NMS to digitally track patients who receive drugs

By 2024, National Medical Stores (NMS) intends to digitally trace all patients receiving medications and other necessary supplies from public health facilities.

The strategy is part of the agency’s effort to digitize the supply chain in order to improve transparency in the country’s medical supply procurement, delivery, and consumption.

From this fiscal year to the end of 2024, the chain will be digitized in three phases. This entails digitizing the ordering system for all public health facilities from Health Centre 11 to national referral hospitals, as well as connecting NMS to the respective health facilities’ stores.

Prior to the deployment, all facilities would send orders to NMS regional offices through email or physical delivery. However, the procedure is lengthy and tiresome. As a result, according to Moses Kamabare, General Manager of NMS, all 268 health center IVs to national referral hospitals are currently placing purchases online in the first phase, which began last month. The technology will be implemented in the remaining sites in July. The US government is funding the project, which will cost 37 billion Shillings.

The government has set up shillings 5 billion to build up a system to track all patients who visit the institutions and receive drugs, according to Kamabare. This is the last stage of the digitalization process.

He claims that following patients, nicknamed “tracking the last mile,” will address the issue of medicine theft at the hospitals.

According to him, the organization is responsible for obtaining, storing, and distributing medicines and medical supplies to government health facilities. It is not, however, responsible for ensuring that patients obtain free drugs.

However, Kamabare claims that the tracking system will allow clinics to identify individuals who have already received treatment elsewhere.

On Friday, NMS received Richard Todwong, the Secretary General of the National Resistance Movement-NRM. Kamabare delivered the statements.

Todwong led a group from the NRM Secretariat to the NMS warehouse in Entebbe, which comprised Emmanuel Dombo, the Director for Information, Publicity, and Public Relations, and legislators from the Acholi subregion. Gulu West MP Ojara Mapendizi, Nwoya Woman MP Judith Peace Achon, and Agago Woman MP Beatrice Akello Akori were among the MPs.

He claims that there have been multiple complaints across the country about drug theft and a scarcity of drugs in public health institutions.

Todwong claims that he was surprised to find that the NMS storage is full, despite the fact that certain facilities have reported running out of drugs and supplies such as gloves.

He now wants the public and local authorities to monitor the supply system and hold health facilities accountable if they claim to be experiencing stock shortages.

In the meantime, Mapenduzi has requested Kamabare to clarify whether the agency has any systems in place to track and prevent the selling of government pharmaceuticals.

However, according to Kamabare, the greatest method to reduce drug thefts while also improving transparency is to track drug consumption.

Meanwhile, Akor and Akello said they’ll mobilize communities to report drug theft occurrences and encourage people to get vaccinated.