Dr Joseph Teye Nuertey
The Volta Regional Medical Store is currently in huge debt so much that the facility may have to close down if immediate and drastic measures are not taken to rescue it from its indebtedness.
According to the Volta Regional Health Director, Dr Joseph Teye Nuertey, the indebtedness “has increased dramatically over the period from GH¢6,211,985.22 to GH¢9, 334, 11.90.”
He stated that the level of indebtedness has affected the supply of drugs and other supplies to health facilities such that facilities at the rural areas do not sometimes have basic medical supplies to carry out their work.
Dr Teye Nuertey said, “That is really creating some problem for us. It means that we cannot pay our suppliers and our suppliers are reluctant to give us more commodities… There are times where some of our facilities do not have commodities at all. Health centres and CHPS compound don’t have the basic commodities.”
“Gradually, the medical store is grinding to a halt. If nothing is done immediately and drastically; we may have to close down the medical stores,” he bemoaned.
Dr Teye Nuertey, therefore, warned that “moving forward there will be stringent measures, including sanctioning facilities that owe the medical stores.”
He disclosed this when he spoke to DAILY GUIDE on the sidelines of the mid-year health review of the Volta Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Services.
The mid-year review of the Volta Regional Health Services is a forum held by the directorate to review the performance of health facilities and directorates across the region and develop strategies to deal with challenges that will come about.
Medical Store
The Volta Regional Medical Store is an appendage of the Central Medical Stores in Tema. The medical store provides commodities, thus, drug and non-drug resources to health facilities across the country, particularly those under the Ghana Health Services.
In the Volta Region, the medical store serves all the 14 hospitals and 25 health directorates including, clinics, health centres and CHPS compounds.
It will, therefore, be suicidal if the medical store closes down, as many lives will be lost due to lack of drugs and other essentials supplies for quality health delivery in the region.
Why Indebtedness
As part of measures to ensure constant supply of drugs and non-drug resources to health facilities in the region, the ‘cash and carry’ relationship between the medical store and facilities was replaced with a scheduled delivery system.
Per the system, facilities send their request to the Volta Regional Health Directorate, and it is packed and sent back to the medical store, which then delivers the supplies to the facilities. Unlike the former regime, facilities only pay for their supplies after receiving and using them.
However, the new system which is to be a blessing has rather increased the indebtedness of facilities to the medical store from about GH¢2.3 million to GH¢9.3million.
He was, however, unhappy that facilities are not ready to use part of their internally generated funds to defray their debts while they wait for the NHIS claims.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
“The medical store is supposed to be their first port of call, but somehow they go behind to the open market to buy products and pay, while they hold on the payment of the medical stores,” he disclosed.
Dr Teye Nuertey further revealed that some facilities also abused the one-month non-availability certificate used to procure medical commodities, adding, “Instead of procuring supplies meant to last for a month, they will procure for more than that one month.”
From Fred Duodu, Ho freduoo@gmail.com