Angara: Probe overstocked drugs at DoH
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2019 06:40:03 +0000
REUTERS
Sen. Sonny Angara has sought a Senate inquiry on the reported overstocking of drugs and medicines by the Department of Health.
Angara, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has filed Senate Resolution No. 53 seeking an investigation on the matter. He cited the Commission on Audit 2018 report which found that the DoH has accumulated drugs and medicines amounting to P18.4 billion.
He said the DoH should explain this issue as these undistributed drugs and medicines cost billions while many Filipinos are struggling to find ways to gain access to medicine due to lack of funds.
“And to think, many Filipinos for lack of money can’t buy medicine or are under medicating themselves. And then they read reports about drugs in some government warehouses going to waste,” Angara lamented.
The senator said the DoH’s perennial problem with undistributed expired drugs will be a “major point of interest” in the upcoming Senate hearings on the proposed 2020 national budget of the agency.
Angara said this wastage of hundreds of millions worth of medicines “is becoming like dengue, it has become an annual thing” at the DoH.
He said DoH officials appearing before his panel “should be ready with a plan on how to end this problem.”
“Maghanda na sila ng prescriptions. Diagnose the problem and come up with solutions. Kung constipated ang drug distribution system, then what is the laxative?” he said. (Hannah Torregoza)