PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has again directed the district health officers and the medical superintendents of the district headquarters hospitals to immediately produce details of essential medicines available at their pharmacies.

Officials told Dawn that medicine lists were sought in the past too but many of those provided by the relevant officials lacked the relevant details.

Through a notification issued on Saturday, the directorate-general (health services) directed DHOs and MSs again to ensure the dispatch of “complete medicine information” regarding 90 essential medicines.

The notification was sent to eight DHOs and medical superintendents of 20 hospitals for immediate compliance.

Officials insist drug lists sent earlier were incomplete

It revealed that the health department began the drug inventory collection from DHOs and MSs of secondary hospitals on July 4 but observed with “immense concern” that the shared data was incomplete.

The notification revealed that the department also learned that there were several inaccuracies and omissions, which needed to be corrected.

“The number of non-essential medicines approved by the medicine coordination cell was either incorrect or missing from the list provided to the health department.

“Likewise, the relevant officials failed to provide details of the exact number of drugs cleared by the drug testing laboratory, while the quantity of medicines about which the DTL’s reports are awaited has also not been mentioned.”

The notification said that in order to ensure accurate and comprehensive data collection, the directorate-general (health services) had directed the DHOs and MSs to review the data filing format in consultation with the respective storekeepers to provide complete information.

It added that the officials should provide the missing information in the excel sheet and share it with the directorate on a priority basis.

Meanwhile, officials of the health department told Dawn that the provincial government had released a total of Rs917.16 million to ensure the availability of lifesaving medicines at the basic and district health facilities in the province.

They added that of the amount, Rs811.95 million was meant for hospitals in the settled districts and Rs105.208 million for healthcare facilities in the merged tribal districts, with authorities being told to start the purchasing process before June 27.

The officials said that the department had also ordered the procurement of medicines from the list approved by the MCC before the formal initiation about the completion of the exercise.

They said that the funds were meant for healthcare facilities to ensure timely provision and uninterrupted availability of medicines across the province.

The officials said that the release of the amount would enable health centres in the province to acquire the required medicines for three to four months.

They said that the medicine procurement process had been completed but the lists provided to the directorate of health services were incomplete, so DHOs and MSs were told to re-send the lists with all relevant information.

The officials said that the system of drug procurement was de-centralised long ago as it enabled districts to get drugs on their own.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2024