Bagamoyo in medicine shortage

       Bagamoyo. The Bagamoyo District Hospital and several other health centres in Coast Region have not received essential medicines since January owing to a Sh 220million debt to the Medical Stores Department (MSD).

The debt arises from a loan they took from MSD last year for medical equipment from MSD Northen Zone.

The situation has created acute shortage of drugs in the hospital and has subjected many patients seeking services in the hospital to agony and frustration.

It has emerged that MSD wants the hospital to settle the debt before enjoying its services.

This was revealed on Sunday by the hospital’s senior medical officer, Dr Tumaini Byron, during the tour of the hospital by the leadership of CCM Parents’ Wing in the district.

Dr Byron noted that the problem had caused the scarcity of medicine at the hospital, saying various efforts had been made to rectify the situation, but did not bear fruit because of a long procurement process.

“This is a problem as our job here is to present medicine  to the district council, where there are various steps to be followed and that must be done, despite the fact that it delays the implementation of the exercise,”Dr Byron said.

Speaking after visiting various places of the hospital, the chairman of the district’s CCM Parents’ Wing, Abdul Sharifu, who was in the company of leaders of different capacities, said they were now aware of many challenges that needed to be addressed quickly.

Apart from the drug problem, Sharifu said water scarcity had also been a nuisance to the patients of the hospital.