County government app to curb drug theft

 

The county government has installed a new app in all public hospitals to stop the theft of medicine.

The new technology dubbed Fee For Service (FFS), has been designed to capture the details of patients and prescribed drugs.

It will also capture the services given to patients to ensure that the government only takes care of what the patients get.

Medical practitioners have been accused of stealing drugs from public hospitals to stock their private chemists and clinics. The national and county governments are also said to be financing services that are not given to patients due to lack of a tracking system.

The device has been installed in all public hospital pharmacies and labs, where most of the cheating is said to be happening.

Suppliers are said to be part of the web that has seen millions of public funds swindled.

Sources said the county government approved the installation of the device after a study that revealed the system would generate daily reports of drugs dispensed to patients visiting county government hospitals.

Monthly reports will be compared with supplies by contractors and payments released against genuine invoices to ensure value for money.

The old system was said to be easily manipulated to steal from the government.

Under the new arrangement, the issuance of Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) to buy drugs and medical supplies will no longer be allowed.

The new system has a verification mechanism that can be used by auditors to trace patients and confirm the recorded services have indeed been provided by a specific health facility.

Sources in the county government said errant pharmacists and laboratory technicians were found to have been sending patients to particular chemists to buy medicine.

Patients have also been sent to specific laboratories for tests after which invoices are sent to the county government.

“The programme will not affect the performance of the physicians but is designed to ensure transparency and that we get value for money in departments described as bedrocks of corruption,” said a county official familiar with the matter.

The app will also help to ensure that the hospitals only stock what patients need.

There have been calls to ban doctors working in public hospitals from owning private clinics to end medicine theft.