Over $600M returned to treasury

Public Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Trevor Thomas

2015 drugs, medical supplies budget

– as hospitals face drug shortage

As Guyanese continue to suffer in the face of massive shortages of drugs in public hospitals and other State-run medical facilities, reports are surfacing that at the end of 2015, over $600 million was returned to central government by health authorities in the 10 Administrative Regions, Permanent Secretary (PS) to the Public Health Ministry, Trevor Thomas told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.

Thomas, appearing before the Irfaan Ali-chaired PAC on Monday, said just a small chunk of the 2015 budgetary allocations for the 10 Administrative Regions to purchase drugs and other medical supplies was spent by December 31, 2015.

This damning revelation came in the midst of complaints of major shortages in very basic medical supplies like painkillers at State-run medical facilities in all the Administrative Regions, with Berbice being the hardest hit.

Recently, this publication reported that the shortage of medical supplies at the New Amsterdam Hospital, Berbice, was climbing to a crisis level, as Doctors were lacking essential necessities to properly and efficiently diagnose patients.

Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) Chairman David Armogan had told Guyana Times that the situation at the Hospital was reaching a crisis level.

“They don’t have any reagents to test cholesterol, to test liver functioning, kidney functions, and so Doctors find it very difficult to make proper diagnosis, because they don’t have the backup services.  We used to get the reagents, but over the last month or so, I don’t know what has been happening. So if you can’t get the reagents, you can’t do the proper testing,” he had stated.

Additionally, during the PAC meeting, officials of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) reported that the medical supplies crisis at the country’s premier State-run health institution was a dire one, with a shortage in aspirin among a list of other basic supplies.

During the Consideration of the 2015 Budget Estimates for the 10 Administrative Regions August last year, the A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government announced that it had adopted a new procedure for the Regions to acquire their own drugs.

Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan at the time had explained that the budget allocations for the procurement of drugs for each region have been diverted from the Public Health Ministry and added to the regional allocations. However, the Minister noted that while the Regions would be given their own monies, the Public Health Ministry was still responsible for procuring the drugs.

At the time, Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira outlined that the new policy would create a logistical nightmare with issues of transportation and storage.

“The big challenge will be not only purchasing and transporting, but also storage under the appropriate conditions so that you don’t lose efficacy of the drugs,” she stated.

There were also questions about the ability of the regional authorities to procure the medical supplies.

Previously, drugs were procured in bulk by the then Health Ministry and properly stored, and then distributed to the various regions on an-as-needed basis.

Many believe that the decision by the new Government aimed to encourage contract splitting as it relates to the supply of pharmaceuticals.

Opposition Member of Parliament Irfaan Ali at the time highlighted that the new policy of the coalition Government was guaranteeing that resources would be sent back to the Health Ministry. The former Minister under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) regime enquired whether it was a form of “contract splitting”.

Ali pointed out that if you had one supplier for all the regions, there would be economy of scale and better prices, but decentralising purchases was a “backdoor way” of achieving contract splitting. In rebuttal, the Communities Minister explained that the purchases were not decentralised but designed in such a way that the respective needs of each region were.