By; ISAAC ODEH, Kaduna
In order to ensure that all drugs for health facilities in Kaduna State are secured, and do not get into the wrong hands, the state government has put machinery in motion to embody and customize drugs supply in the state.
The Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Health Supplies Management Agency (KADHSMA), Pharmacist Aisha Tukur Isyaku disclosed this while speaking to the media in Kaduna on Tuesday.
Aisha observed that drug security is important because it helps put measures in place to ensure that quality, safe and efficacious medicines are produced by facilities that meet the right standards and that the integrity of such medicines are not compromised during distribution along the supply chain from the manufacturers down to the consumers.
The ES explained that with the embodiment and customized logo, it will be easy to identify and trace any drug from the store of Kaduna State.
“So if you see our drugs where they are not supposed to be, we will take necessary action to check how it got there.
“It will also help patients in Kaduna State to know that the state’s customized drugs are not supposed to be purchased in the open market.
“We are going to embark on awareness and enlightenment campaign on this,” she said.
Pharmacist Isyaku noted that Kaduna State drug stores are stocked with quality and affordable products for the good use of the people.
She explained that with the contributory health insurance scheme, more people now visit, health facilities across the state, hence the need to increase the stock of drugs.
“To address this, the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai has suggested that the agency should have a framework with manufacturers.
“In compliance with this, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with five drug manufacturing companies in Lagos.
“We have given them our first delivery worth over three hundred and fifty million Naira, and have received drugs of over two hundred million, which are all in our store, so all we want now is the patronage of the facilities which will make recovery of the funds easy,” she said.
She also hinted that the agency has decentralized its activities by creating supply stores in all the three senatorial zones and work will soon commence to rehabilitate some of them for effective use.
