Headline Secure meds via hi-tech MediaTitle Philippines Daily Tribune(www.tribune.net.ph) Date 18 Sep 2019 Section NEWS Order Rank 2 Language English Journalist N/A Frequency Daily Secure meds via hi-tech Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, in turn, assured lawmakers that there are no expired medicines as of the moment as the drugs were already cascaded to DoH regional offices which will be distributed to the provincial hospitals. The use of advanced technology or computerization was pushed yesterday as a solution to the overstocking of medicine, worth P367.158 million, that the Commission on Audit recently reported were close to expiry. Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, who presided over the budget deliberations on the P160- billion budget of the Health Department along with Senators Nancy Binay and Cynthia Villar flagged the inefficient system of the Department of Health (DoH) in stocking medicines in warehouses. “Secretary Duque, who determines the medicine that we need and procure, especially in hospitals because we notice that you are letting the medicines expire inside the warehouses. I think there is a problem in the way or the system of distribution,” Go told DoH officials. Subsequently, Villar asked if they are using a computerized system in handling and monitoring the stock medicines. “In the procurement, we already have the Procurement Operations and Management Information System but with regards to the SCMO (Supply Chain Management Office), we are now creating an end-to-end information system,” Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje told the panel. DoH warned Villar, for her part, was not convinced of DoH’s vow to improve its operations and further explained that given the P19 billion requested budget for medicines in 2020, the agency’s inventory should already be computerized. “When you spend P19 billion budget, that is almost the sales of our (Villar) company, and you don’t even have a computerized system? Who is in charge? Is this being decided by a single person? Or by a committee? If you can’t even manage that, these should be allocated somewhere else,” Villar told the DoH officials. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, in turn, assured lawmakers that there are no expired medicines as of the moment as the drugs were already cascaded to DoH regional offices which will be distributed to the provincial hospitals. “For the medicines, there’s historical data being used. What is the forecasting? What is the projection? These were being used by our program managers who recommend the quantity of the medicines that should be procured to address the needs of our poor patients,” Duque explained. He also assured that the remaining P3.3 billion stocked drugs will be distributed before the end of 2019 as they were currently doing monitoring and evaluations in their warehouse. Go also asked the DoH to strengthen the rehabilitation program of drug addicts. “Yesterday during the budget hearing of PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) and Dangerous Drugs Board, several issues were raised regarding drug rehab centers like lack of personnel and facilities. Can you give us an update like those in Las Piñas on how can we improve our information campaign so that the people will know that we have drug rehab all over the country and how do we convince them to use our facility for their benefit?” Go asked DoH officials. The senator noted rehabilitation centers were not being utilized and maximized, thus he urged DoH officials to encourage and give drug addicts a chance to change their habits. He suggested that if the Health officials were not able to utilize these funds or if drug dependents are resistant to reform programs, they might as well allocate these funds for burial assistance. “Can we realign the budget for rehab? Can we just put it for burial assistance? Since many are dying in legitimate operations against drugs, let’s just realign these funds for rehab to burial assistance,” the neophyte senator said. USAID help secured Duque indicated the DoH is currently working with development partners such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Health Organization on the terms of reference for procuring a computerization and automation system for the management of the SCMO. The Health chief added there was no budget increase for the immunization program of the government. “It was not affected because the forecast is the same. The utilization is the same so the projection and the budget are the same,” Duque said when asked if the budget for vaccines were affected by dengue and measles outbreak. Meanwhile, Duque stressed the DoH is targeting to sign the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Universal Health Care (UHC) law by October but the budgetary requirements remain a challenge for its implementation. Duque indicated the DoH was informed by former Department of Budget and Management acting secretary Janet Abuel that revenues intended for the UHC from the Phillippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation was distributed to other agencies. The Health Secretary said he has yet to meet with Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado to negotiate more funding for the UHC. Budget down from last year “You’ve seen your honors that the total budget of the DoH for the 2020 is just about P160 billion, in fact, it is lower than P169 billion last year. This really makes a status quo budget. And the proposed budgetary requirement of the first year of UHC implementation in 2020 is actually about P257 billion,” Duque noted at the hearing. “So this is something that we struggle with and we need the support of the Congress to perhaps pour aid in the requisite investments in the UHC for the promotion, treatment and the maintenance of the health of the Filipino people,” Duque added. The DoH previously said that they will roll out the UHC first in certain integration sites located in Mindanao (10 sites), eight in Visayas, 13 in Luzon, and two in National Capital Region. .