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DOH responds to COA concerns; P7.43B medicine wastage clarified
DOH responds to COA concerns; P7.43B medicine wastage clarified
The Department of Health (DOH) has responded to concerns raised by the Commission on Audit (COA) regarding the alleged wastage of P7.43 billion worth of medicines and other items last year.
Following calls from health groups for an independent investigation, the DOH clarified its position on this matter.
DOH stated that of the P7.43 billion worth of inventories identified by the COA in their audit report, only 0.03 percent were found to have expired and 1.16 percent were nearing expiration.
The audit primarily focused on the proper disposal of expired drugs and medicines rather than the fact of expiration itself, as the hospitals and facilities were able to provide justifications for these cases, the DOH said.
The majority of the cited amount, accounting for 95.81 percent, as per DOH, was determined to be non-expired inventory. This category mainly consisted of slow-moving, undistributed, or overstocked items.
Regarding the expired medicines, DOH revealed that most of these were stocked in DOH hospitals, where they went unused due to the reduced number of patients seeking care during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Additionally, DOH emphasized that some of the expired medicines were in DOH regional offices, remaining undistributed due to the refusal of implementation units to accept new stocks, citing the sufficiency of existing supplies.
In terms of the slow-moving inventories, the DOH reported that as of Sept. 8, 86 percent of these items had already been distributed to Centrally Managed Health facilities (CHDs) and other health facilities.
The remaining 14 percent of the inventories categorized as slow-moving, undistributed, or overstocked are scheduled to be delivered in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2023.
Furthermore, the DOH has pledged to address supply chain and asset management issues by exploring and implementing new strategies.
In response to these concerns, DOH Secretary Teodoro Herbosa has directed the establishment of an asset management task force within the DOH, aiming to proactively plan for, immediately address, and prevent similar issues in the future. (Zekinah Elize Espina)