- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Hier 21:10

Bodoe reports $80m in expired drugs, materials at Nipdec

HEALTH Minister Dr Lackram Bodoe lamented that some $80 million in pharmaceuticals and non-pharmaceutical supplies has expired at Nipdec, suppliers to the public health system, from 2020 to 2025, as he spoke on the mid-year review in the House of Representatives on June 23. He blamed this wastage on the lack of an integrated inventory management system, an ongoing problem for the last ten years. He assured that the government would fix the problem. Bodoe revealed that to store both these expired items plus active pharmaceuticals was costing the state $123,000 per month. Saying taxpayers were not getting enough bang for the buck, he said, "That reform will come." He vowed to review the drug procurement process and supply-chain policies. He listed the allocations over recent years from the consolidated fund to buy drugs and other related materials and supplies. These were $617 million (2015), $507 million (2016), $531 million (2017), $498 million (2018), $573 million (2019), $148 million (2020), $255 million (2021), $251 million (2022) and $372 million (2023). However, he said the decreased sums in the years since 2020 had been supplemented by loans taken by the former government each year. These loans were $478 million (2020), $821 million (2021), $403 million (2022) and $311 million (2023). Bodoe said his ministry was requesting $728 million (or a quarter of the supplemental allocation) which he said would be used to pay outstanding bills from the former administration for goods and services already consumed. The minister lamented millions of dollars of waste/overspending at the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA), largely on external purchases. Bodoe said the SWRHA has two incinerators but both were non-functional, so the authority had to use external contractors to dispose of bio-hazardous or medical waste. Each month the SWRHA paid $32,000 to a contractor to dispose of human body-parts, he said. Further, to dispose of other types of bio-hazardous materials, the authority also paid two other contractors the sum of $365,000 and $250,000 per month, Bodoe added. The minister said the SWRHA had paid $63,000 per month to rent a generator to power a device called an autoclave (which uses high-pressured steam to sterilise medical instruments), giving a total recorded sum of $1.5 million. The minister said this generator could alternatively have been powered by TTEC, if only the SWRHA had engaged them. Bodoe said San Fernando General Hospital had been fitted with a new roof costing $5.5 million, but this was now found to be infested with termites. "This speaks to, almost one can say, misbehaviour in public office." He said shortcuts were taken while professional advice was ignored in this failed roof installation. Bodoe said the SWRHA has a facility to produce medical oxygen but since November 2022 it has been out of service. In the interim period, the SWRHA has bought oxygen externally at a cost of $225,000 per month, or a total cost so far of $7 million (including $1.5 million in this fiscal year.) Bodoe said in contrast to these sums, the cost to fix the oxygen-generating plant would have been just $500,000. He complained that taxpayers were not getting value. Bodoe was perturbed by the fact of 587 medical graduates applying for employment at the country's regional health authorities (RHAs) from 2023-2025. He listed these applicants as 96 at the Eastern RHA, 263 at North Central RHA, 83 at South West RHA and 143 at North West RHA. They were still awaiting employment, he added. Bodoe said this situation of doctor unemployment was untenable because the state has paid their training costs and secondly that they needed the opportunity to work so as not to get rusty. "As a government, we will have to find a way to fix this situation." He lamented that someone could be on a waiting list for three years but some who has waited just six months got a job first. Bodoe said there might be a case to set up a central agency to do hiring for all RHAs. Seeking $24 million for maintenance of the Couva Children's Hospital, he accused the former government of a breach of public trust in not opening it until "forced" to do so by the covid19 pandemic, when it was used as a shelter for infected patients. Lamenting the hospital now has only 20 patients despite having 238 beds, he promised, "The Couva Hospital will be made available to the citizens of TT." Bodoe said the cardiac catheterisation lab at San Fernando would be open, as he hit the former administration for promising this for ten years but not doing it. The minister also promised to present a waiting list initiative and a review of the RHA system. He said he was a new minister with a different vision and a different mode of operating. The post Bodoe reports $80m in expired drugs, materials at Nipdec appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.