Govt disburses 184bn/- for medicine
MINISTER for Health, Ummy Mwalimu has said that the government has already disbursed 184bn/- out of the 200bn/-, allocated in the 2022/2023 budget for procurement of medicine.
This, Ms Ummy said represent 94 per cent of the budget, expressing her hope that the remaining amount of 16bn/- will be disbursed before June 30th this year.
“Until June 30th this year, the government will have provided the ministry with 100 per cent of the entire budget,” Minister Ummy said this in Dodoma yesterday during the climax of National Pharmacy Week celebration.
In addition, Ms Ummy has asked the medicine and medical equipment committees to sit, discuss and identify various challenges that lead to shortages of medicine and medical equipment in some health centres in the country.
“President Samia Suluhu Hassan has fulfilled her responsibility to provide fund for medicine and medical equipment, but there are many complaints from citizens about the lack of medicine in health centres, the medicine and medical equipment committees are responsible for identifying the challenges that lead to the lack of medicine in health centres and work on those challenges” she said.
“The committee must sit and come up with answers to these challenges because the funds provided by the government is adequate, we cannot let the people continue to complain about lack of medicine, while we have been provided with the fund,” she said.
Minister Ummy has also called upon pharmacists in the country to carry out their daily duties in accordance with the professionalism and guidelines of dispensing medicine in order to avoid breaching their professionalism ethics.
“You must adhere to your morals and work oaths, there are those who perform well but others still violate code of conduct, stop providing medicine to patients who do not have prescriptions from the doctor because doing so might cause medical resistance in patients,” she said.
On her part the Tanzania Pharmacy Council Registrar, Elizabeth Shekhalage said that the aim of this pharmacy week celebrations is to make pharmacists to evaluate themselves in their daily work and performances.
Shekilaghe called on all pharmacists in the country to continue to perform their duties based on the ethics and professionalism of their profession as well as to cooperate to allow the provision of better medical services to the people.
