Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole
Adewole said this while delivering a
speech at the ‘Dissemination Meeting of 2016 National Health Facility
Survey’ in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said clinical competence and
knowledge of healthcare workers, availability of drugs and basic
equipment, and management and supervision of healthcare facilities were
essential to the improvement of the health sector.
The minister said, “Availability of
commodities is also important. We have mentioned inadequate funding
which is a major factor but it is not the only reason for the out of
stock of commodities. Better management is also important.
“We are living witnesses to the
challenges we face with the HIV programme where drugs worth about $3.2m
expired. So, it is not a question of it (drugs) not being available.
Sometimes the drugs are there but we don’t give it to them (patients)
and then they expire.”
Speaking with our correspondent after
the event, the minister said the incident would not repeat itself as
mechanisms had been put in place to forestall such.
Adewole added, “The issue is that the
drugs expired because of some challenges in the system and we are trying
to putting that behind us. We are now putting together a network of
logistics supply system. We have two excellent facilities in Abuja and
Lagos which we call ‘Warehouse in a Box’.
“The one in Abuja is called Premium
Medical Supplies Store and everything there is computerized and with
that kind of system, there will be no more expired drugs because we will
be able to monitor them electronically. It will be a system of first
in, first out and we will also be monitoring expiry dates.
“What we are also trying to avoid in the
country is a situation where we take drugs that are about to expire.
When you pick drugs that have short shelf lives like six months, they
can expire easily.”
Meanwhile, Adewole has said putting money in the health sector is not expenditure but an investment that will yield dividends.
He said this at National Stakeholders
‘Validation Meeting of the second National Strategic Health Development
Plan framework which was attended by health commissioners from the 36
states of the federation.
Adewole said there was a sense of
urgency for governments at all levels, particularly the state
governments to have the political will to place high premium on budget
financing for health because, over time, budget for health was grossly
inadequate.
He said, “Health is an investment issue,
health is security and, above all, health is a human right issue, the
right to health should not deny anyone.”
The minister said that the Federal
Government was working with the state governments to revitalize the
primary healthcare centers, adding that ailments like malaria,
Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS were better treated at the primary health care
level. 
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