Kemsa signs drug agreement with Bungoma County

BUNGOMA, KENYA: Bungoma residents will no longer face limited access to drugs in the health centres following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) Thursday morning with Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA).

The MOU assures constant supplies of essential drugs in all health facilities, boosting the county's master plan of universal access to medical care to all.

"We have been facing erratic supplies of drugs to our facilities, and this has affected our operations. The hitch has mostly been due to unforeseen financial hiccups," said County Executive Committee (CEC) Member for Health Stephen Kokonya.

Mr Kokonya cited a case where the county ordered for drugs worth Sh9 million from KEMSA just before the end of the financial year 2015/2016 as the root-cause of the recent drugs shortage in the county.

"The order was not paid for as the financial systems were shut down just before we could honour our obligation. This being the case, our subsequent order of Sh14-million of drugs were put on hold from KEMSA," he said.

The CEC said he was glad the batch will now be delivered next week to all health facilities in the county. "But as we've been waiting, we have been having anti-malarial drugs which have been distributed by the Malaria National Programme," said Mr Kokonya, adding: "We are also firming up an agreement with KEMSA where there shall always be constant supplies of drugs as well as regular payments to their accounts through a money order."

He assured the public of the county's commitment to boost access to quality medical care