Uganda: MPs Blame Medics, Patients’ Deaths On Drugs, PPE Deficits
The parliamentary taskforce on Covid-19 response has faulted the National Medical Stores (NMS), and the Health ministry on ignoring the plight of frontline medical workers across the country.
The MPs in the report released to Parliament on Tuesday, said the two institutions had failed to supply medics with enough personal protective equipment (PPEs) against Covid-19.
In their countrywide fact-finding report, the MPs also said essential medicines for treating Covid-19 patients were in short supplies in many health units, and that patients had been forced to buy them from private facilities.
The team chaired by Abdu Katuntu, the Bugweri County MP, said whereas PPEs were the primary guard against infection, often times health workers had attended to Covid-19 patients without adequate protection.
More than 60 doctors and other health workers have succumbed to Covid-19 since it was reported in the country last year, with more than 3,000 infected. The situation has instilled fear among the health workers, with many shunning health facilities for fear of contracting the viral disease.
The report says despite NMS indicating presence of huge consignments of PPEs in its stores and pledging to distribute them across the country in the second week of July, the deliveries made were insufficient to take care of the increasing demand for PPEs.
The MPs said the deficiency had forced some health workers to recycle masks and disposable aprons.
“This comes on the backdrop of adoption of the home-based care strategy and inclusion of the Village health teams among the frontliners in response to the pandemic by the sector. This ultimately increased the uptake of PPEs. However, there was no evidence of a proportional increase in supply to match that demand contrary to the information given by NMS,” the report says.
The Katuntu report also says the rising number of Covid-19 infections among health workers and the subsequent death of some was attributed to the dire inadequacy of the PPEs such as masks, aprons, goggles, surgical gloves, gum boots and consumables such as hand sanitisers that leave frontline workers exposed while on duty.
“By reviewing the NMS delivery notes, the taskforce found out that only one delivery was made since the beginning of the second wave, moreover the quantities were far too inadequate to meet the needs of handling Covid-19 patients,” the report says.
The report faults NMS routine schedule of supplies once every two months even during a pandemic, and says this does not favour the emergency nature of Covid-19 response.
The report says at Bukedea Health Centre IV, for instance, NMS had supplied only one packet of masks on May 31, which would only last for three days.
“Further, at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, NMS had supplied 70 units of a specialised medicine called Enoxaparin that is used to treat critically ill patients in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It was last supplied on June 11, yet each patient would require about 10 units of this drug to be able to pull out of the ICU,” the report says.
The report says while the facility admitted 69 patients since May, NMS had only supplied enough quantities for seven patients.
“The taskforce was notified that whenever health facilities order for drugs and essential health supplies, their orders are not honoured by the NMS. The taskforce was further informed that the NMS has not yet adopted the Electronic Logistics Information Management System for procurement of emergency public health supplies and has continued to prefer the push system,” the report says.
The report also says NMS would be able to see the balance on hand, quantity ordered versus amount issued and other details and it further allows the facility ordering to either accept or reject the quantity being supplied by NMS instantly.
“Moreover, this system has the ability to have information shared among the ordering facility, the NMS, the Ministry of Health- director general of health services, and the pharmacy department of the ministry,” the report says.
The report says with such failures, the different regions reported a worrying rise in the number of Covid-19 infections, hospitalisations and deaths among health workers because of dire inadequacy of masks, coveralls, face shields, aprons, goggles, surgical gloves, gum boots and sanitisers that leave health workers exposed in line of duty.
Availability of medicines
According to the report, there is evidence that NMS continues to deliver essential medicines and supplies bimonthly as shown by the delivery notes. In regional referral hospitals, the report says medicines used for treatment of Covid-19 such as Azithromycin, Zinc and Vitamin C were delivered but some experienced stock outs before the end of the two-month delivery cycle.
“Vitamin D was not delivered to the facilities. This forced patients to buy medicines that were out of stock. Zinc was out of stock in both higher and lower health facilities and the pharmacists were extracting the zinc found in the paediatric homapak kits,” it says.
“In general hospitals and health centre IVs, there was no special addition of the above supplies in the regular bimonthly deliveries. Therefore, facilities depended on the essential medicines stock for regular health services and the good will of partners,” the report added.
Health ministry responds
While the National Medical Stores is yet to respond to the issues raised by the taskforces, the Ministry of Health, in its response to the findings, said their efforts have been hampered by huge funding gaps to meet the demands.
Ms Hanifah Kawooya, the State minister of Health in-charge of General Duties, said the current funding gap for PPEs stands at Shs193.6b for this financial year. She also said Covidex and other supportive treatment drugs are undergoing clinical trials before approval for inclusion on the list of drugs for Covid-19 provided by the ministry for home-based care.
“This is being done in line with the international protocols under the National Drug Authority supervision and guidance,” she said.
By Monitor.
