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Government debt to MSD reaches Sh200bn

The Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children Ms Ummy Mwalimu.

What you need to know:

  • The Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children Ms Ummy Mwalimu announced the appointment of the new registrar of the Medical Council of Tanganyika, Dr David Mzava at the 50th National Health Conference in Dodoma. The new appointment comes at a time of a clamour for doctors’ full representation at the council. For many years, MCT registrar was a lawyer who did not have medical background.

Dodoma. The debt burden of the Medical Stores Department (MSD) has increased from Sh102 billion in 2014/2105 financial year to Sh200 billion in the 2017/18 financial year, a health advocacy NGO, Sikika has revealed on Wednesday during the 50 National Health Conference organised by the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT).

Presenting on the topic: Demand and Supply of Medical Commodities in Tanzania, Sikika’s Programmes director Patrick Kinemo said that there was the need to improve the country’s financial management system in the health sector, including timely clearance of debts by the government.

Mr Kinemo reveled further that the budget allocations for medicines in the 2017/18 was Sh260 but only Sh80 billion had been disbursed.

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However, he said, there was remarkable improvement in the availability of tracer medicines, according to the latest assessment carried out by Sikika.

“What is needed now is improvement in the availability of financial resources,’’ said Mr Kinemo, a pharmacist.

He called for timely disbursement of health sector budgetary allocations, saying that doing so would reduce shortage of medicines in health facilities and would boost the quality of healthcare being provided in the country.

The reports of the financial burden on the key government institution come after it signed a lucrative agreement on October 9, 2018. The agreement will enable it to be the major supplier of medicines, medical and laboratory equipment in 16 member states of the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc).

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