The State House Health Monitoring unit has Friday unearthed expired drugs worth UGX 5billion from select health centers in Ntungamo District.
According to Dr. Brian Asiimwe the head of medical investigations of the unit, the retrieved drugs include ARVs, lab medicine, anti-malarial among other drugs.
Asiimwe said that they discovered large quantities of expired drugs and other items in different health centers causing financial loss to the government. He expressed concerns as there is a possibility that these drugs may get on shelves again and be resold to unsuspecting people in private drug shops.
He furthermore said such malpractice poses a danger to human health across the country.
Asiimwe also said that they have informed the National Medical Stores (NMS) and plans to pick the expired commodities for destruction are underway.
The expired drugs are blamed on serial absenteeism of health workers, lack of inter facility transfer of medicine, and changes in treatment, especially ARVS.
Asiimwe said they have informed the District leaders to work closely with the NMS such that drugs do not expire and those already expired be transferred to NMS.
The team had previously arrested the health Centre managers of Bwongyera health Centre III, Rubaare health Centre IV, Rwashamaire health Centre IV and Kitwe health Centre IV. They were questioned over many accountability issues including utilization of government grants and management of health systems.
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