The Program Manager for the Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) Davies Mwachumu recommended capacity building for an already existing structure known as Health Centre Management Committees (HCMC) as strategic intervention towards curbing drug theft and pilferage at public health facilities.
Mwachumu told a consultative meeting in Salima on 25th February 2022 that building capacity of the HCMCs can enable them effectively monitor the drug supply chain at facility level while on the other hand combating drug theft and pilferage and holding health workers accountable at all levels.
The meeting which focused on institutional updates on addressing drug theft and pilferage was organized by the Net-work of Journalists Living with HIV (JONEHA) with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through AVAC under the COMPASS Africa Initiative.
“In the National Community Health Strategy, Health Centre Management Committees are not-ed to be a vital organ in tracking access to medicines and other issues in the health service de-livery,” said the program manager. He thus ex-pressed dismay that the structure is underutilized due to lack of capacity and that their avail-ability at health facilities is usually not function-al.
The program manager further pointed out that Malawi’s low budgets on health like the 2021/2022 from which out of the needed K50 billion only K20 billion was provided and that in the 2022/2023 only K28 billion has been allocated. He observed that with such very low budgets for a country that is already suffering from drug theft and pilferage in facilities; it can hardly meet the demand of essential medicines thereby leading to persistent drug stock outs.
He also observed that there is normally no accountability on essential drugs at a health facility. He cited a case in Balaka where 4,000 tablets of Glibenclamide at Chiyendausiku health facility were not utilized and traced between January-May 2021 and at Nandumbo health centre where 1,000 tablets of Amnophilline received could not as well be traced.
Mwachumu expressed concern over soft penalties on culprits nabbed in drug theft and urged government to apply stiffer penalties to deter would be perpetrators of the malpractice which is contributing to drug stock outs in the country. He expressed optimism that the introduction of electronic drug management system at a facility would allow effective tracking that can prevent drug theft and pilferage.
“For many years, government workers in the health system especially pharmacy technicians and others have been embroiled in drug theft and pilferage, yet they get lenient punishments and get away with it, “bemoaned the program manager.
