Dodoma — MEDICAL Stores Department (MSD) plans to increase drug and medical supplies to 90 per cent through engagement of local manufacturers and investments.
MSD Director General, Mr Mavere Tukai told reporters that they would focus on construction of local pharmaceutical and medical supplies industries through Public Private Partnership (PPP) as the government wants to lower drugs and medical supplies imports.
"We are finalising logistics as plans are at a good stage for setting up state-of-the-art medical equipment and drugs industries in Kibaha, Coast Region. All these efforts are meant to ensure the availability of the products and that we purchase them locally at a much more reasonable cost," he underscored.
He said the business write up for the project, which will be run through PPP, is at an advanced level and soon, the details will be communicated.
The government through MSD has in place state-of-the-art medical devices and drugs industries at Idofi in Njombe Region, producing a number of items including medical gloves, tablets and syrups.
He outlined other measures to be used by the department to attain the 90 per cent access from the current 74 per cent of drugs and medical supplies availability, is through entering into long term framework agreements with suppliers and manufacturers of drugs and medical supplies for assured availability.
Mr Tukai said they are also reviewing the procurement system of the drugs and medical supplies by engaging stakeholders' views to have in place a comprehensive system.
The objective, he said, is to meet markets and consumer's needs.
For more transparency, accountability and efficiency of the procurement process to ensure they abide by the rules, regulations and law, he said, they have engaged the e-Government Authority (e-GA), to ensure that all in house procurement procedures are being done through the digital system.
Moreover, in keeping their house in order they are also evaluating the inventory management and come up with the minimum and maximum inventory level for the best practice.
MSD delivers essential medicines, medical supplies and Laboratory reagents direct to more than 7,153 health facilities across the country through its ten zonal stores located strategically in Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Mtwara, Mbeya, Iringa, Tabora, Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, Tanga as well as Kagera.
The department has been undergoing transformation both in management and operations for good governance and increased accountability taking into consideration the state injection in the health sector.
As for the availability of fund for purchase of medical devices and drugs, he paid special tribute for the government after it increased budget to the MSD from 134.9bn/- in 2021/22 financial year to 200bn/- this year. He said in the first quarter of the budget, 57bn/- has been received.
He also said that the system of Direct Delivery has registered tremendous improvements in terms of timely service delivery, order fill rate, quality and accurate documentation, which have in turn led to increased customers satisfaction.
MSD has served the nation for more than 25 years and continue to innovate and maintain efficient, secured and cost-effective systems of its four functions of production, procurement, storage and distribution.
MSD is undergoing complete reformation processes aimed at improving its operational performance. The main focus areas include service and operational excellence, timely availability of quality health commodities with affordable price through local production, as well as promoting good governance.
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"We envision to be the Centre of Excellence for health commodities supply chain in Africa by ensuring that our products and services comply with international standards, and close cooperation with our stakeholders is maintained in order to reap maximum benefit of their support" he insisted.
He recognised the huge task ahead of them taking into account the government move towards Universal Health coverage as customers would demand value for money, affordable prices, delivery and availability of all items which must adhere to standard and quality of the drugs and medical devices.
