The National Medical Stores (NMS) General Manager Moses Kamabare has said lack of qualified pharmacists at district level is route cause to poor health service delivery.
Kamabare made the remarks at celebrations to mark 25 years of NMS' existence, while reacting to allegations that NMS supplies expired drugs to district health facilities.
“The medicines and vaccines NMS supplies to districts are being handled by unqualified pharmacists, which is very disastrous to patients’ health. NMS in partnership with the Ministry of Health and development partners is embarking on capacity building through training of health workers, to handle medicine professionally, countrywide”, he said.
On allegations of delay in supplying medicines to districts, Kamabare said: “This is not true because before a supplies truck leaves NMS at Entebbe, the driver is required to log into our ICT system, where an SMS message is automatically sent to the recipient person at the district health facility."
The Minister for Health Jane Ruth Aceng said NMS is doing the best within its budget allocations, to serve the country.
“Out of Shs 1.3 billion NMS requires to carry out their duties, they only receive Shs 240 million budget”.
She hailed development partners for procuring extra six medical supplies trucks, which she said will expedite distribution of medical supplies in the entire country.
“There is no need to have district medical stores, as these modern medical supplies trucks are equipped with the necessary equipment to preserve medicine and vaccines”, she said.