PS Ouma Oluga
A new procurement framework is getting medicines to public hospitals faster — but half of patients at lower-level facilities still cannot access the drugs they need.
By Grace Wanja
A new legal framework allowing individual hospitals to procure directly from the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency has improved the timely delivery of essential medicines and equipment to public health facilities, Principal Secretary for Medical Supplies Ouma Oluga said yesterday.
Speaking at the KEMSA National and County Referral Hospitals Conference in Naivasha, Oluga said the direct-procurement model replaced a county-centred distribution system plagued by mismanagement, mounting debts and logistical delays that left facilities chronically understocked. Drug costs have fallen by up to seven percent under the reformed supply chain, he said, while KEMSA’s refill rate has expanded to 92 percent.
The gains, however, have not reached the patients who need them most. “Despite KEMSA’s refill rate expanding to 92 percent, only 51 percent of patients at level four and below have access to drugs,” Oluga acknowledged. He called on KEMSA to address the shortfall urgently, warning that collusion between hospital pharmacists and privately owned chemists operating near public facilities was siphoning medicines away from patients. The government, he added, was promoting local manufacturing of essential medical products to reduce import dependency and stabilise supply against global disruptions.
Governance reforms and a consolidated supply chain are necessary — but medicines that reach the agency warehouse and not the patient represent a problem still waiting to be solved.
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